Life Lately // 02 – Slowly
Oh wow, I don’t even know where to start. It’s already March and I’m still on my second entry for this series. My goal was to update here once or twice a month. But now we are already done with March. If 2022 was fast for me, I don’t even want to compare it to 2023 at this rate.
But, where do I start? I guess it’s safe to say that 2023 has been really slow for me. I’m not quite sure if I like it or not. I definitely have a lot of ideas and things that I want to make but I have not been able to execute any of them yet. For now, I will try my best to embrace the slowness of everything.
I’m not really good at remembering things but thankfully I have my journal with me to help me reflect and remember the past few weeks/month.
Book Corner
I guess we will start with the books that I am currently reading. I have been struggling to keep up with my reading recently but I am very happy to say that I am slowly chipping away through the pages and I cannot wait to finish reading them. I am currently reading 2 books: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker and Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Why We Sleep
![Why we sleep doodle](https://huesandprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/why-we-sleep-300x300.jpg)
I love how informational this books is, it is lengthy and sometimes it makes me anxious reading about all of the findings but I just try to remind myself that it is good to know all of these things so that I am aware of how important sleep is and how it greatly affects our health. Since reading this book, one of my goals each week is to get as much sleep as I can.
Anxious People
![](https://huesandprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/lime-doodle-300x300.jpg)
I don’t really know how to feel about this book. I think it’s the style of writing that I don’t really like. So far, I find the story unique, I don’t have a fave character yet, all of them annoys me. Sometimes I feel like what I’m reading doesn’t really add any value to the entire story. I find myself rolling my eyes more than sympathizing with the characters. I will still finish this book though, I am already more than 50%, too late to stop now.
Commissions
One of the things that I wanted to do more this year is to accept more commission work if I am given the opportunity. So far, I have worked for 2 clients — for a friend and for another one which I am not sure I am allowed to share yet but once it gets launched, I’ll be sure to share them here or on my social media accounts.
![](https://huesandprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/running-shoes.jpg)
Working out
I’ve been doing really well with keeping up with my workout ring late last year but ever since 2023 started, I have been struggling to get up early for a run and a bit of workout. So far, I’ve only been able to do one to two workouts per week.
Despite knowing it’s positive effects on my mood and my mental health, I seem to choose to put it off a lot this year. It’s like my body just wants to stay in that low, sad, anxious mood.
Gouache paintings, coffee and Instagram
![](https://huesandprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/paint-tubes.jpg)
Not loving my paintings recently but I am trying to take my time and paint as much as I can. Hoping to share some of my paintings here soon.
![](https://huesandprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/coffee.jpg)
New rule for myself: Never drink caffeine in the evening. And yes, Matthew Walker made me decide this for myself.
![](https://huesandprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/social-media.jpg)
Scheduling content has been a great help for me so far. I tend to overthink things when it comes to posting but having it scheduled helps me just forget about it and come back once I am ready to face the app again.
Searched for other productivity tools: Obsidian and Asana
I’ve been using Notion for everything and it’s been great but there are times that I feel like there’s just so much going on that it’s actually distracting me.
So I tried to use other tools for managing my project tasks.
![](https://huesandprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/asana-300x300.jpg)
I tried Asana, again. I’ve used this before for work and it was a really good tool however advanced functions are only for the paid plan and I do not have the budget to pay for it (lol) so I stopped using it as soon as my Pro trial was over.
![](https://huesandprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/obsidian-300x300.jpg)
Next tool I tried is Obsidian, this is not really built for productivity but it is a really great tool for note taking. I have been taking down notes from the books that I read and notes from work using this tool but when it comes to storing data and managing my tasks, Notion was still the best at it.
So yes, I eventually came running back to Notion, changed things a bit and moved my note taking to Obsidian. If you are interested to learning how to use Obsidian, here is a channel that I find very useful: FromSergio. I do think that this app has a lot of potential so I am very interested in seeing it grow in the next couple of years.
Free printable file soon
I have been working on a free printable for this month but I have not finished it yet. I had to stop working on it for a while because I needed to focus my time on some client work so I am hoping I can get back to it and share it here soon.
I think that is all for now. I still have other things I want to share but this post is already getting too long so I am saving my other stories for the next post. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and if you want to leave a comment, you’ll need to be logged in to do so.
Love and light to you my dear reader! Have a great rest of your day!