5 Ways To Spring Clean Your Tech

Hey!
It is nearing Spring and with that Spring Cleaning is coming around and quick. I feel like spring cleaning tech is forgotten by the majority of people including myself. Since I had an extra week off before I went back to college, I decided a good clean of my technology was needed as I use both my phone and my laptop constantly for college. Some of the things I did took a few hours while others took a few minutes.

Defrag your Laptop

Defragging is a way of speeding up your device by organising the contents stored. Not all laptops can be defragged if it has a hard drive it can but if it has an SSD drive it can't. If this is the first time to do it on your laptop and you've had the laptop for quite a while it could take up to 10 hours but it is so worth it as it makes everything faster. 

For Windows, simply search 'defrag' on the system and the inbuilt software will pop up. I don't know how to access it on Mac but Google is a magical place. If you want to prevent your laptop slowing down in six months time because you forgot to manually defrag it, schedule it! I have mine scheduled to do it weekly in the background.

Back up your Photos

I use Google Photos to back up my photos as it comes with free 15GB storage. The only thing is that you need fairly good wifi so the back up doesn't take hours. I have my photos on my phone to auto back up once as my wifi is turned on, I haven't had a chance to upload my photos from my laptop yet as I am waiting to get back to college and have good wifi to do it on.

Also, it is really easy to make albums. There is a facial recognition feature too which is only available on the US Google Photos but there is an easy way of accessing it for anyone who wants it and live outside the US, click HERE. It's a really easy process and takes about 15 minutes to activate but then you have to wait a few days before the albums start popping up.

Go through them Apps

A good purge of all those apps you don't use is such a good idea to do every so often. It clears up some of that precious memory and cleans up your home screen. There are definitely some apps you don't use anymore and are just taking up space like some shopping apps, games, social media that you don't use. Don't worry if you end up deleting something that later on you might want as you can always redownload it later.

Unsubscribe from all those pesky emails

As a blogger, I always get added to random newsletters that I definitely didn't sign up for. I used to just ignore them but they have been piling up and I'm just sick of getting them so I spent an hour unsubscribing to them. It is a pain to do as you have to unsubscribe to them one by one but it is so worth it as now I don't see these emails taking up space in my inbox.

Following Purge

I really wish I did this one sooner as it was so needed. I went through all my social media accounts both personal and blog accounts. Now I had to use a different protocol for each, for my personal accounts I unfollowed or unfriended people based on if I still know them or if I enjoyed what they post, if it was no to both of them I would unfriend or unfollow them. For my blog related accounts I had to use a different approach as very few people I follow I know in real life. My criteria are do I enjoy their content? does it inspire me? does it make me feel happy? Again if there is no to two of these I would unfollow. I found it cleared up my timeline a lot and helped me to see what I actually wanted to see on social media.

Have you any plans for spring cleaning?

Thanks for being awesome,

My 2019 Bullet Journal

Hey!
The past month I've been preparing my Bullet Journal for the new year. I didn't fully finish my old one, I have 40 pages left, but I decided I didn't want to start a new one in February or March. I decided to try out a new Bullet Journal too as I found the paper of Leuchtturm 1917 A5 Notebook Dotted Notebook a little thin. I decided to try a Scribbles That Matters A5 Dotted Notebook after a lot of investigating and looking at reviews. I've made a Pinterest board of the inspiration for my spreads.

I liked the idea with starting my bullet journal with a quote last year and I decided to do it again. I found this quote on Pinterest and I thought it would fit this year as it will be an adventure with new things and adventures.

Next is a Future Log which is an overall calendar for the year where I will put in dates for events and birthdays.

I always like to set out some goals for the year but I felt like it didn't need to take up a whole page so I decided to add my Project Pan into it too. I think a Project Pan is a goal also. You would have seen my goals for 2019 in my last week's post.

Two spreads that are contradicting, a wishlist and a savings tracker. I found it really handy having a place to write down things I would like as if I wanted to treat myself or for Christmas, it was nice having a wishlist all in one place. I went off the savings train last year and I hope to try and get back on it again with trying to save €10 a month or €120 for the whole year. Since I don't have a job at the current time due to my health and college is expensive, it could be hard but I can always try.

Reading is another thing that I through to the side in 2018 and having a place to write down what books I read over the year and books I want to read will hopefully inspire me to pick up a couple books.

From my last bullet journal, this spread was definitely most used as I can't remember passwords for my life. If I couldn't remember a password for an account I would always check my list. Definitely saved me a good few times.

I like tracking my stats for all my socials and of course my blog and YouTube channel. I picked this layout as it was more minimalistic compared to last years one.

Since I want to explore more of Cork, a 'places to visit' spread was a good idea. I've heard of loads of nice places to go and see but I would always say I'd write them down and make a list but never do or end up with a load of notes on my phones.

That's my main set up for my 2019 bullet journal, I haven't included my January spreads or my college spreads as I think the post would be far too long. At some point, I would love to do a post on my college spreads which will probably be in September sometime.

Have you set up your bullet journal recently?

Thanks for being awesome,

A New Year

Hey!
We are five days into a new year where good intentions and new resolutions are drawn out with the highest hopes that they will become part of our life if it is to get fit, kick that bad habit or start a new one. Sometimes they work and other times they don't, for me that was pretty evident last year when I had 8ish goals for the year and accomplished one. This year, I am making goals/plans that are realistic and I will actually do. Last year, due to stress and other fun things like illness, I didn't complete a lot of my goals.

Drive, Drive, Drive!

I thought last year would be the year that I got back to driving but it truly wasn't due to many health-related reasons. I hope this year to book my driving test and fingers crossed pass it. I really want to be able to independent and drive by myself even if I don't have a car. I would be halfway there!

Read 5 Books

2018 wasn't a great reading year for me, I had set my reading challenge at 16 books and only read 5 and it was a struggle. That's the reason why I decided to reduce my challenge to 5 as I know I will be busy with college and life in general. I want to find my love again for reading as it is so nice to sit down and read a book. Currently, I am reading 'The Skin Nerd' by Jennifer Rock and I am really enjoying learning about what effects skin. I also want to read Empire of Storms and The Tattooist of Auschwitz. I've brought my Kindle out from hiding as I have 6 months of Amazon Prime Reading so I don't have an excuse about not having space in my bag for a book.

Blog

I want to get back in the groove of blogging, as I'm writing this my inspiration for posts is coming back after a very long hiatus. I hope to blog as frequently as possible, whatever that is, ideally every Saturday but I won't be pulling my hair out over a post not going up a particular Saturday. I want to continue posting on Insta and maybe get a little better at that too as I am never consistent.

Explore Cork

I have really become a Corkonian myself since I started college in UCC in September but I haven't done much exploring of the city apart from the nightlife. I've a spread in my bullet journal dedicated to all the places I'd like to go to and places I'd like to eat in and encourage me to explore this city that I will be calling home for the next 4 years. 

Spend More Wisely 

I love shopping like the next person but I feel like I have enough stuff to not shop as frequently anymore. I want to spend my money more wisely and instead of spending it on meanless things to use it towards new experiences and adventures with friends or by myself. I won't stop shopping but I don't need another Harry Potter t-shirt from Penneys.

A Memory Jar for 2019

I have seen this idea all over Pinterest for the last few years and I've always wanted to do it. So basically, by the end of the year, I should have all the memories and funny moments written in a jar and I hope to open it on New Year's Eve and read all of them.

Reduce Time on Spent on Phone

I like everyone spends too much time on my phone, it's the last thing I look at at night and the first thing I look at in the morning. I found that it really has become a problem as I am mindlessly scrolling through Twitter and Instagram for hours with no benefit. I hope to reduce my phone time by 10 minutes a week on average. My average is around 5-6 hours and I want to get that down to 3-4 hours by the end of the year.

What are your goals for the new year?

Thanks for being awesome,