Hello 2015! Let's stay organized, shall we?

The new year is finally here! (Oh God, whyyy?? Time needs to slow down). So I thought I'd share with you some tips on how I like to stay organized, because who wants to get to school/university one day and find out they had a test they completely forgot about? :)

Planner

The most important thing for me to stay organized is having a planner. Every year I look forward to going to libraries and go through all the planners to find the one I'm going to be using the next year. It's a big thing for me. But now is the time for a sad story: 

-Beginning of emotional rant-

I live in Venezuela and we are going through some really hard times. There's no money to buy stuff. So guess what country doesn't have planners for 2015?... That's right.

Every year libraries are FULL of cute planners. I was so looking forward to buying one this year... but the planners never arrived. The only ones available were those professional ones that people use for the office and that's what I had to get. Oh and I got the only one with a decent price, all the others were incredibly expensive and I don't even know why, they looked pretty much the same. But like I told you, we are going through difficult times, EVERYTHING now is expensive, except gas (I know, right?).

I feel like a business woman.

I had one like these when I was younger that I would use as a diary (those sad, emo days of my teenage years) after seeing Bridget Jones many many times haha. So hey, let's stay positive, I'm going to make it work. I'm going to make it pretty.

-End of emotional rant-

I use my planner especially for university. I write down when I have tests, projects and any evaluations to turn in, and also the grades I get. I also use it a lot for my extracurricular activities, I have a lot of assemblies because of them, so I keep track of that too.

To keep everything nice and neat, I like to use highlighters, I always have around 3 different colors to use them for different things, so it's easier to find/identify everything. I also like using post-it notes in case there's something I'm going to be needing to see more than once, so I can just move the note along with me through different weeks.

Also, I have a lot of different stick markers, so that I can mark pages where there are important things that I can't forget.

Notepad

This is just for silly stuff, really. Whenever I listen to a song or have an idea for a new drawing and I'm sitting in front of my computer, I open Notepad and write it down. I keep such lists for: songs and albums, video games, drawing ideas, blog posts ideas and things like that.

Memos

Just like I do on the computer, this is my version for the phone. I have one list called 'Stuff I have to do today' haha, it consists of things I should be doing that day and, if I don't get to do or finish one of them, I'll keep it there for the next day.

I have another list where I write stuff down for my book reviews, whenever something interesting happens in a book and I don't want to forget to mention it in my review, I write it there. I also have lists for: books on my Kindle that I want to read soon, two other lists for drawing ideas and music, stuff from games (this is mostly to remember things I have to do in games I'm playing, so I won't forget when I resume the game) and any other thing that may come up, sometimes I do lists for stuff I need to buy and things like that.

And this is pretty much it. It may not sound like much but it's all very useful and helps me keep things organized. I know there are apps out there that help you with certain things, I have one for shopping lists but I rarely use it, I feel more comfortable using memos.

Finally, I wanted to share with you my New Years Resolutions. I usually don't do this, but I've seen a lot of people talking about their resolutions on their blogs, so I thought it might be fun to try it.

My New Years Resolutions

1. Work out more (at least every other day). I used to do yoga every day before, if I was busy I would do it every other day. Lately I haven't been doing much yoga, mostly because I've been more busy since I'm going to finish university soon, but I told myself that I could find at least 20-30 minutes to do some yoga every other day.
2. Be more positive. I used to be more of a pessimist before, but I found out that it's actually possible to teach yourself to be more positive, you just have to try. So I keep working on it to be more positive every day :)
3. Pay less attention to phone. I'm not really addicted to my phone or anything, I actually get by with just 260MB every month. But I'm one of those people that, when they get a message, they answer it right away. And it needs to stop. Mostly it's because I always get stressed out because most people are not like that, so I answer as soon as I can and the other person answers me 2 hours later, and there I am waiting like a crazy person. So from now on, I'm going to keep my phone nowhere near me and check it every now and then.
4. Stop overthinking about things that have already happened. This is mostly because I live in a country filled with incredibly rude and selfish people (#1 reason why Carla wants to leave this country), so everyday you're going to have an encounter with at least one person that doesn't care about anything other than themselves (Mostly when driving, most people here are AWFUL drivers. Especially those sexist men who say women can't drive, those are the worst drivers #GoFigure #WhatASurprise... Cars are dangerous, people here don't seem to get it -_-), and, well, I always find myself thinking about it later. A lot. That needs to stop too.
5. Work hard and prepare things so I can leave this country one day. Canada sounds nice, I really want to go live there. Going to another country is a lot of work, there a lot of things you need to get ready before leaving and a lot of things you have to do when you arrive. But I want to do this. And I'm gonna.
6. Appreciate the good things. Living in Venezuela, with all the problems we're going through and being surrounded by incredibly rude people, can be very stressful. But sometimes I need to remember to appreciate all the good things in my life, even though it can be hard. I'm here, aren't I? Sitting in front of a computer, being healthy, with electricity, clean clothes and a glass of water next to me. Under a roof. There are actually A LOT of things to be grateful for every day.
7. Be in my beautiful bubble. Aaand when everything else fails, just keep to your little bubble! This may sound silly, but during those days when you're really sad, mad or tired and don't want to have anything to do with the world (you know we all have those moments, come ooon ;) haha), then just stay in your precious bubble for a couple of hours. Read a book, play a game or just meditate and relax. I do need my bubble from time to time. I love my bubble. But don't forget reality, reality is nice too!
8. Design more characters. I've mentioned before how one of my dreams is becoming a character designer for video games, movies or anything like that. So I really need to work on my skills and make my portfolio grow.
9. Work on my digital drawing skills. I'm mostly a traditional artist, but when it comes to digital, I still need to work some more. But hey, I've been improving! Maybe I'll just take some of those new characters I'm going to design and work on them digitally too.

So those are my resolutions! Or at least the ones I could think of, I bet there are a lot more that I forgot.

I hope you found this post useful! Take care and may your year be filled with blessings and a bunch of really good things! :)

Thank you for reading! Bye-Bye! ♥