Paperless Productivity - Journal It!

After the success of Tick Tick, I decided to try another productivity app that had come up on Google Drive and decided to give Journal It! a try.  Unfortunately this time it wasn't as much of a success I just didn't get along with it and actually stopped using it after a couple of weeks.  However, just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean that it won't work for someone else so I'll try not to be too negative in this post.

This app is meant to be more like an all-around journal and tracker rather than just a diary you put your tasks into and is actually set up to be something similar to a bullet journal.  This app is also one in which you can log into using your Google account, allowing everything to be backed up and accessed from different locations.  I didn't do that however as I wanted to see how the application would work before I started syncing it with Google and, as I wasn't keen on it after the first week, I decided to not experiment with it any further.  One thing I don't like about this layout is that, with the tracks, it only tells you how many you have managed to do continuously rather than how many in total, and if you miss one it goes back to zero.  I don't necessarily want to make myself feel like I have to do them every day as it can be a little intimidating, but this is the feeling that this gives.

The Home page is the default page and it basically gives you an overview of everything that's going on.  It shows you the photos that you've taken recently and which you can add to a note for that day by tapping on it, lets you select your mood for the day allowing you to track any changes, holds the habits you've added, and contains a timeline which shows you all your actions, posts, and tasks you did or didn't complete on any given day, including the time in which these actions were done.  

You can also add habits, event posts, journalling etc by clicking on the cross at the bottom right and selecting which one you want.

The Planning page is where you add your to-dos for the day, as well as any notes you want, similar to a post-it note you might use in a physical diary.  I usually used this for shopping lists etc, which could then just be deleted once completed.

These are pretty easy to add by just clicking on the cross again and selecting what you wanted.  As I mostly used this page for to-dos that's the one I selected most often.

Then you type in the name of the task, select the date and a time, if needed, you want, set any reminders, and set the task up as a repeat.  

The three symbols at the bottom allow you to add a location in which the task needs to be carried out, add a photo to the task, and connect the task to a specific category, activity, journey, or tag (this is the files symbol and we'll get into this more a little later).  One of the smart things about this part is that if you haven't got one set up already you can just type the name into the box at the top and then click on which section you want it to go to.  

Then you click done and that's your task set up.  You can bounce through each day to see what tasks you have coming up and, as with previous apps, the screen size was a good way of controlling how many tasks I added to each day.

The Journeys page was not something that I used at all.  As far as I could tell it is a section you could use to either plan an actual journey or use it to organise specific things like an event or decorating a room.  To create one you just click on the cross, add the name of the journey, the expected start and end date, a description, and a covering picture if you want.  You can then add tasks, habits, and notes to this, see how you're journey is progressing on the timeline, as well as marking this as complete once your journey is finished.  I don't need anything that complex and I enjoy using a physical diary to write about things that are going on, so this wasn't a section I used at all. 

The last section is Activities and this is where you can put together any projects you have going on.  To be honest, Journeys and Activities seem pretty interchangeable, with the only difference being that you can 'complete' a journey.  Again, I don't need anything this complex (at least not at the moment anyway, I hardly have lots of complex activities whilst I'm in lockdown) so I didn't really use this section either. 

To set this up just click on the red cross and here, the only thing you add is the activity's name.  As with Journeys, once you've set up an activity you can see how it's progressing on the Timeline.

Add any tasks and notes that you need to do which are connected to this particular activity.

And add any habits or photos, etc that might be connected.  An Activity or Journey can be added to a task already made at any point.

All of the journeys, activities, photos actually added, habits, notes, and to-do can be looked at on their own through the menu.  You can even look at statistics which show you how your week, month, or year is progressing if you really want to keep an eye on how well you've been doing.

To be fair to this app, I do think this is a good app for someone who is either using it for a small business; organising a large event such as a wedding or large holiday; or someone who really likes to have a fully organised life right down to the last detail.  It would probably also work for people who already use a bullet journal and want to take those features into a digital format.  

However, for me, it was just too complex for what I was needing and I felt like I was using less than half of what the app could potentially do.  That seemed to be a little bit pointless, especially seeing as this app takes up quite a large chunk of storage on my phone.  So this is definitely not an app that I will carry on using, but, if you like bullet journals definitely have a look at this one, it might work for you.  This all means that Tick Tick is still on the top of my list of productivity apps and I am definitely saying goodbye to Journal It.

Next, I'll be testing Memorigi.

Toiletries: What's Left & What I'm Aiming For

There was a time when I had a ridiculously large amount of toiletries.  I'd never intended for that to be the case, but I had become very good at 'storing' them to the point where I'd actually forgotten what I had.  It wasn't until I pulled everything out one day that I realised just how bad it had become.  That was a few years ago now and since then I have worked through all of those products, as well as starting the process of experimenting with different types of toiletries to find the most sustainable items that fit what I need at the moment.  Right now I'm still here in New Zealand, so a number of the items I have are New Zealand brands and aren't necessarily in keeping with how I'd like my toiletries to look just because I don't know enough about what's available here just yet.

So, this is what I have left, by category, and how I intend to have this category in the future.

Dental Care
I never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss my Georganic toothbrushes and toothpaste, they are just really good quality products and pretty much all of the packagings were re-usable or recyclable.  However, it has been really easy to get bamboo toothbrushes here, which we've been composting, and I'll definitely keep buying wood-based brushes in the future.  I love the Georganic floss that I've been using and will keep buying the refills (or equivalent if I can find it) as long as they keep selling them.  The water where we're staying right now has fluoride in it, so we've been buying the fluoride-free Red Seal toothpaste.  This toothpaste has a lot of good point about it, however, the packaging is still not great and I want to get back to either the pot based or tab based toothpaste I've used in the past as soon as I can.  Time to do a bit more research on those, so if you know of any good brands please let me know.

Hair Care
I'm now down to just two brushes (I'm not entirely sure why I had so many before), one for wet hair and one for dry.  I do seem to be having a bit of bad luck with my Kent Head Hog brushes though.  The last one fell apart around the bristles and had to be replaced, and the end of the handle on this one has fallen off.  Thankfully, I don't really need that part for the brush to function, but they still don't seem to be lasting as long as they used to with my first one lasting about 10 years before it gave up the ghost (when I dropped it down some concrete stairs).

The shampoo and conditioner are ones that I got here in New Zealand (you can read more about the products I've brought in New Zealand here).  Whilst I do really like this shampoo I definitely prefer having a shampoo bar instead of the liquid soap as, not only is there less waste, but it's so much more compact.  I still haven't quite found a bar that doesn't make my hair feel waxy after a period of use or have SLS, it seems to be an either-or thing, but I'm going to keep looking and hopefully have found some new items to test once this liquid shampoo runs out.  I had stopped using conditioner for a while and, whilst the health of my hair overall pretty much remained the same, I had noticed that it got tangled a lot easier and was harder to brush through.  I know now that I can live without conditioner and am only using it at the moment as I want to donate my hair in the future, but if I could find a bar conditioner in the future then I would keep this product as part of my hair care routine.  So I guess I'll be doing some more looking here too.

Deodorant
Right now I'm down to only one deodorant and it's a natural one.  I used to always have a couple of deodorants with me as I would use an antibacterial one for when I was at my job, but if I wore it every day it would stop working so I would wear a non-antibacterial one on my non-work days.  As I can't go to work at the moment I'm not having to worry about that and have used up all my previous deodorants.  I actually quite like just having the one, more natural deodorant and I'm hoping I can carry on doing so once lockdown is over.  I might have to change that, but I'll just see how that goes.

Face Cleansing
Right now I'm still using the micellar water and reusable cotton rounds (which I removed the inner padding of as it was absorbing most of the product) I was using while we were still living in a tent.  It is a quick and easy way of cleaning the makeup off your face but, as the flannel I now use to do my second cleanse shows, it doesn't do a very good job of getting my skin properly clean.  Once I've used this up I want to go back to using oils to cleanse my face as I find they're the most effective without drying out my skin.  I've used up all my face toners and I'm not sure I'll bother buying anymore as I haven't really noticed any difference in my skin since.  Also, oil cleansing I normally use means I don't need the extra step to ensure I've removed all the dirt from my face.  I also don't have any face masks or scrubs left and, whilst I don't really feel I need them that much, I do miss the Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel Sensitive Exfoliating Mask.  I do have a problem with dry skin on my face, which does produce flaking patches, but I don't really like using physical scrubs if I can help it.  This does a really good job at keeping that at bay and I only had to use it once every one to two weeks.  I'll be on the hunt for that once I'm able to start earning money again and I'll just have to rely on the trusty face clothe for now.

Face Moisturising
Right now I am down to just one item in this category, and that's a mixture of the face night oil I make myself (a mixture of Jojoba Oil, Avocado Oil, Rosehip Oil, and Frankincense essential oil) and the Pixi Collagen & Retinol Serum which I threw in with my night oil as I didn't think they would let me take it in its non-seethrough packaging in my hand luggage on the plane.  It has turned into an interesting colour and texture, but it seems to be doing the same job on my skin as when I put them on separately.  I just can't double moisturise at the moment, which is fine for now but will become a problem if I'm still in New Zealand during their winter.  I do really like the serum though, so I'll be rebuying it in the future, but only when I'm earning again.  Fortunately, I still have a lot of the oils waiting for me at my parents' house in the UK so I can just remake my own night oil again once I'm home.  I've used up all my morning oil, which was actually just Jojoba oil, and I'm beginning wondering if I really need to use it at all in the mornings as long as I make sure I moisturise my skin enough at night.  Something to experiment with in the future and anything I can remove from my morning routine would be good.  I've also used up all my eye cream and should probably look into buying some more of that as that is quite a delicate area for me.  However, I do want to make up my own form with the oils I already have, so maybe I'll leave off buying anything for now and do a bit of research on eye oil recipes.

SPF
Right now I'm using the best sunscreen I could find here in New Zealand for the budget we have (see the blog already linked).  However, in the future, I want to go back to the types of SFPs I was using before, namely more natural, coral safe, and reliably cruelty-free.  I'm also just using a body sunscreen for my face, but I've heard people say that you shouldn't really do that so I'll need to see if that's really the case and if it really makes that much of a difference.  I know the old faithful I like back in the UK, but if I'm going to be here a while longer I'll probably need to look more at the products I can get in New Zealand.  The main issue here is the price of the more sustainable ones.  Definitely need to keep looking.

Body Cleansing
This one's pretty simple, it's soap and it'll stay that way.  I'll keep using soap that has no SLS, is cruelty-free, and the most natural I can find.  Thankfully this is becoming easier and easier to do so I doubt I'll have any trouble sticking to this.

Body Moisturising
I brought a pretty big tub of moisturiser here in New Zealand and it's working pretty well, however, I do have to put it on pretty regularly to keep my skin healthy as it's usually the thicker, less absorbent types of moisturiser that work for me.  That's the type of moisturiser I'll actually look for once this is finished.  One of the ones that worked really well was the moisturising bars that you get from Lush.  I was also much easier to carry around and used a lot less packaging, so I'll look for something similar to this in the future.

And then there's hand cream and lip balm.  The lip balm is a new one I'm trying from Ecostore and it was the only one I could find at the time.  So far it's working pretty well, it's also cruelty-free which is good.  I'm down to just one lip balm, with no duplicates, and that's how I'm planning on keeping it.  I am purposely working through the hand cream, not because I have duplicates as this is now the only hand cream I have, but because I've had it for a while now and don't want it to get old before I've finished it.  I'm also not really sure if I will need to separate hand cream if I find a good body moisturiser, but I guess I'll see how that goes once I start working again.  It might be that I need something more intense to use on a daily basis to counteract the drying effect that manual labour always has.  I also want to see if I can find more solid, possibly tin-based versions of these products in the future, just for ease of travel and reduction of packaging.  The Welsh Lavender Ltd's Farmers' Hand Cream is in a tin, but as it's of a more fluid texture it can get a little bit messy if it ends up on its side.  I do really like it though and, if I need to buy a hand cream again, the messiness wouldn't necessarily put me off.

Hair Removal
I would still be using my safety razor at the moment if it wasn't for the fact that I've used up the last of my refill blades and haven't been able to find replacement ones here in New Zealand yet.  That means that I've had to resort to buying a pack of disposable razors for now, but I'm going to keep looking for the blades so that I can go back to my safety razor once these are gone.  Lockdown, budget, and tent living have also meant that a trip to the beauty salon or the use of an 'at home' tub of wax and reusable cloth stripes for waxing hasn't really been an option, meaning that the humble waxing stripe has now become my main form of hair removal.  They're definitely not my favourite way of removing hair because of the amount of waste they produce so, once we're more settled, I definitely want to go back to either the tub and reusable cloth stripes or budget in regular beauty salon visits again.  It all depends on the budget.

Sanitary Products
These are still the same as before and I will keep using these for the foreseeable future.  They are, of course, the Mooncup and the reusable sanitary pads from Bloom and Nora, which I only really use for emergencies.  Not only are these much more sustainable products, but they've also meant that I've had to carry far fewer products with me when I travel and have spent no money on sanitary products since purchasing them.

Tools
These are pretty simple and I don't think they've changed too much recently.  I still use, when I remember, the dry body brush to help exfoliate the skin, help with circulation, and deal with ingrowing hairs (a real problem when you're dry skinned like me).  I've had these Tweezerman tweezers for years and they're still going strong, though I do need to finally get them sharpened now (if I can work out how to do that).  It's definitely a good example of spending a bit of money on something that will last a long time.  Then there's the pretty standard nail scissors, file, and manicure tool, though I actually don't use the manicure tool that much so I'm thinking of getting rid of it in the future.  I do have cotton buds, which I've been able to find with bamboo instead of plastic, but I always feel bad about using these and I really need to find an alternative in the future.  Any advice on that would be much appreciated.  There's also a brush for my eyebrows as they go completely mad if just left to their own devices and, of course, a flannel (this one's from The Body Shop and is pretty cute but not of great quality).

And that's it, that's all my toiletries for now.  There are some things that I have used for ages and will continue to do so, but there is definitely going to be changes happening in the future to a much more waste-free, sustainable selection.  I basically want to have as little bulky, liquid containers in my toiletries bag as possible, especially as it's likely that I'll still have quite a nomadic lifestyle for now depending on the work I am able to get during this time.  It has been interesting though, having a period where I've been without certain products for a little while.  It's definitely shown me what items I can do without and what items have really made a difference to the health and appearance of my skin, hair, and teeth.  Hopefully, by the end of this year, I'll have a core set of toiletries that I use completely and nothing more.  I let you know if I manage it.

Project Pan 2020 Update #2

As expected after last quarter's many use ups, this quarter has been pretty slow with only one original product gone along with an add on one.  Lockdown has meant that I've basically worn makeup every day as I haven't been able to work, do any other outdoor activities that really don't require any form of makeup, and it's been good to have something to add to my day to help the time pass.  There's not really much else to say so let's just get to it.

The Mistine Cosmetics OHH Lipstick No. 01 is now completely finished.  This was my final lip colour and I'm going to go lipstick free until the end of this year to decide what I want to do next.  This was a really nice colour, good texture, and had pretty good staying power.  It also didn't dry out my lips too much which is always good for a matt lipstick.  However,  I won't be buying this lipstick again as I can't find out anything about its cruelty-free status.

The last original product left is the Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani eyeshadow palette.  As with all palettes, this is taking its time, but I am getting to every shadow and using a number of them for more than just eye colour.  I was using Bathwater as my highlighter but now that I have a good pan on it I've moved to Blonde.  Zone is now my all-over base eyeshadow instead of Anaheim as I've started using Anaheim as my contouring shadow, and it's actually a really good colour for that.  I've also started using Stark to set my concealer as well as it's not a bad match for my skin tone and, now that I no longer have a lipstick to wear, I've started doing much darker eye looks, which means me using much more of the shadows then were being used before.  This includes using Danger as my undereye liner as the blue coincides with the blue of my eyes and it's a subtle but nice pop of colour.  This should mean that I get through a number of these shadows pretty quickly by the end of the year, hopefully.

Now for the two products that I've added to this project pan as an incentive to use them up.  There's nothing wrong with either of these products specifically, they are just getting a bit old.  The first is the Fair Squared Shea Lip Balm, which I started really working on at the beginning of June and managed to finish in June as there wasn't nearly as much as I thought there was.  It's a good moisturiser, but it does leave a weird feeling film on your lips and, even if you put on just a little bit, leaves white bits in the corners of your mouth.  There is also a slightly weird taste, which is probably why I was put off using it, to begin with.  The other balms that came in the pack were really good though and I would recommend them overall.  They're also fairtrade, vegan, and cruelty-free.

The last item I've added is the Welsh Lavender Ltd Farmers' Hand Cream.  I didn't really feel like I needed this too much at the moment as I'm not doing my usual manual work.  However, I am doing a lot of hand washing and I've noticed that there are some dry patches forming so moister would be a really good thing right now.  It's a good incentive to use this up as I have had it for quite a while now.  It's also a really nice cream, so if you can get it I would recommend it.

So that's it for now. I can't believe how few items I actually have left in this project compared to the projects I've had over the last few years.  The number of beauty products I own has definitely gone down and I'm really happy about that.  I'm thinking I probably will do another project next year just to work out what I actually want to keep, but that will be the last one and, hopefully, I won't find myself in another situation where I need to do this again.

Goals for 2020 Update #2

It's definitely been a strange three months for everyone, especially as pretty much all of it has been in lockdown.  It has had some effect on the goals I had set for this year, but not in the way I was expecting.  In fact, working towards most of my goals has been a good way of having some normalcy to my life during these times of change so I've actually appreciated them being there.

British Sign Language Learning

Now, this is one of the goals which I expected to do more of during this time than any of the others, but the truth is that I really haven't.  I gave myself a number of tasks to do whilst we had to remain inside and this one kept falling to the back of the queue.  I'm not entirely sure why.  Possibly because I was enjoying doing some hands-on activities again that I hadn't done in a while and possibly because of the difficulty in finding groups to talk to when you live on the opposite side of the world.  Whatever my excuse is this goal has fallen behind and I really need to play catch up now.

So, the plan moving forward is this.  Whilst I still can't be part of a group to help bring my learning forward I'm going to go back through the original course I learnt from and practise the words that we were taught there.  This will give me time to really get used to signing some very simple sentences and to using all my expressions to help when communicating information, which is important in sign language.  To be completely honest, I'm not a very animated person and it's important I learn to get over that if I'm going to pick up this language properly.  Once I'm back in the UK and able to meet up with a group to learn more I'll start looking into ones that are near me.  Hopefully, by that point, I'll have the basics under my hat.

Financial Fitness.

This goal is the complete opposite to the BSL learning in the fact that I was not expecting it to move forward much at all this quarter and yet it's done a lot better than I was expecting.  In fact, I've managed to finish paying off the credit card debt I incurred buying the car here in New Zealand and have managed to build back up my Emergency Fund.  Whilst I have managed to find some online jobs they haven't really been paying much and the main reason for me being able to do this has been due to some money I got back after doing my tax returns.  I have to admit I wasn't sure about whether to use it this way or whether to keep it in my current account in case I needed it in the near future, but I decided it would be better off making more money in my savings account and reducing the amount I would have to pay in the long run on my credit card.  I could always dip into these again if I needed to later.  Obviously getting a tax return isn't something everyone gets to have, but I almost see it as putting away savings every month during the year and then getting to use it once that year is over.

I am hoping to be returning to the UK by the end of this quarter and find a job pretty soon after that, which means that the next goal of building up a 6-month fully-funded emergency fund is still a possibility as long as we live quite simply and spend as little money on expenses as is possible.  I'm also looking to find some side jobs as well which will bring in some extra money and get us to that goal a little quicker.

Being a Tourist

Obviously, this hasn't been quite as easy as it should have been due to Covid-19, but we've been lucky in New Zealand in the fact that we've been given a bit more freedom earlier on than most countries have due to the low numbers of Corona cases here.  We've already managed to do some walking as the levels were dropped to 3 and then 2, you can read about them here, and then a drop to level 1 meant we got to visit the Sky Tower and Rangitoto Island.  Two locations we hadn't planned on visiting originally.  We're also looking at doing the trip to the South Island we had planned before it was cancelled due to Covid-19 at the end of March.  I'll keep you posted on that.

So the plan for next quarter is not only to, hopefully, travel south, but also start researching places in the UK we can visit once we've actually returned.  This will mainly be in the Devon area to begin with as that's where we'll be located when we first return to the UK, but we hope to go further afield in the not so distant future.

Paperless Productivity.

Still testing different apps to see if I can find the one that works best for me.  This quarter it's been Teux Deux, Actions by Moleskine, and TickTick.  Right now Teux Deus and TickTick are on the top of my list, but there are still a few apps to go before I can decide if using an app instead of a physical diary really works for me and if it's one of these.

And that's it.  Still working my way through the goals as best I can.  Whilst I do have plans for them this next quarter I have to admit that my main priority right now is actually listening to what's going on around me in this long-overdue civil rights movement and to learn as much as I can whenever I can.  So maybe my own goals won't go as far as I had hoped at the start of 2020, but I'm absolutely fine with that as long as I keep moving forward.