LIFE UPDATE

I haven't sat at my laptop and written a post for ages. When I relaunched my blog a couple of months ago, I sat for days typing away and built up loads of posts ready to go in my drafts. For me, my blog motivation is either 0 or 100. When my motivation is there, like today, I can sit and write posts for hours, but when I have no motivation there is no point trying.

I'M BACK!

I'm back with and it feels good! After a rough start to 2017 things are starting to look up.

9 TIPS FOR PRODUCTIVITY

I have been struggling with motivation this year. I'm not sure what it is, but I'd much rather stay in bed and watch Netflix on my laptop. Although that sounds like a fantastic idea, let's face it, if I did that everyday then nothing would get accomplished would it? I can still allow myself to have occasional Netflix days though right? 
If you've been feeling like me, then here are some tips that I have found useful to help me be more productive. 

LATELY

I think it's time we had a little catch up. Having been absent from my blog for around 6 weeks, I thought this called for a post detailing what I've been up to and why things are looking slightly different around these parts. 

12 LITTLE PICK ME UPS

Lately, I haven't been feeling myself. I'm not sure if it's my hormones or because I'm stressed about my AS exams which are just around the corner. Who knows what's causing it but I'm determined to keep going, hold my head up and smile. To try and cheer myself up a bit, I've been trying little tips and changing up my routine. If you're feeling the same way, here are a few of my favourite things to do to cheer myself up... 

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES & CANDYFLOSS

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO FIND ON C&C IN 2016

I'm definitely embracing the New Year, fresh start, particularly on my blog. In the past sixth months I've definitely slipped in terms of blogging. I was thoroughly enjoying blogging until I had to put it on hold for my GSCE's and since then I haven't really got back into the swing of things. In order to kick off this New Year, I thought it would be best for me to reintroduce myself and what you can expect to see on Cupcakes and Candyfloss during 2016. (Can you believe it's 2016 already?!) 

Hello, I'm Lauren, I'm 16. I've had my blog for nearly 2 years now and I have loved it. This blog became Cupcakes & Candyfloss back in August 2014. Due to school work being my main priority, there will be at least one blogpost every week and one video on my YouTube channel, which you can find here.

In terms of posts...

Beauty: My greatest passion is beauty and as I started blogging in order to share reviews and tutorials of my favourite make-up products, this is mainly what you can expect to find here this year. My make-up collection is forever growing and I find it exciting trailling out new products in order to share my thoughts on them.

Tips: I am introducing a new section this year which is going to be tips, and here you will be able to find blogging advice, make-up advice and so much more. I thought this would be a great addition to Cupcakes and Candyfloss as I love writing this style of post. 

Lifestyle: Occasionally you will see a few posts which are lifestyle related such as recipes, DIY's and outfits. Yes, a scary thought but when the weather gets better I would love to create some outfit style posts. 

I hope you are looking forward to what's to come in 2016 as I certainly am!

What's one of your New Year's Resolutions?

Lauren 

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REVISION MOTIVATION

I'm sure you will be aware by now that I have my GCSE's looming and I am sure many of you have exams too, whether they are GCSE's like me, A Levels or another exam. At the moment I am having a phase where I would much rather spend my day watching Netflix, eating chocolate and under a blanket but I'm trying to hold out until the evening of June 18th as that's when my exams officially finish. 

So how do you keep motivated when the exams are so close? Here are some tips...

GETTING MOTIVATED 

I have days where I have zero motivation at all, but I find what helps is to think about what I want to do in the future and what I need to do to get there, and this just helps to spur me on for a few hours. I find what really helps is doing small chunks of revision. I know myself that some days I feel so unmotivated I would much rather spend the day with my friends watching films or going shopping but I can do that every day in July if I really want to, I just need to wait a few more months.

TRY TO GET RID OF DISTRACTIONS

I like to listen to music whilst I revise so put my phone onto do not disturb, put my ear phones in and turn on my playlist. I put my laptop and iPad into a draw and ask my family to respect the fact that I am revising. Sometimes having my phone and iPad in the room with me urges me to go on them so you could ask a family member to look after a distraction until you have done some revision and then you can reward yourself after you have spent some time on your school work. 

SMALL GOALS

Set yourself small goals, spend 20 minutes on maths for example, take a 5 minute break then do a few practice questions. If you revise in smaller chunks you will feel so much happier knowing you have done a small amount of work than doing none at all because you are not motivated.

REWARDING YOURSELF 

I like to reward myself in between revision chunks by watching one of my favourite programmes or a video from my favourite YouTubers. I try to do 3 smaller chunks of revision with smaller breaks in between then take a bigger break, then after try to do some more smaller chunks. This way you will get quite a few subjects done, you don't feel under pressure and your brain can input the information into your long term store without displacing the information because you are trying to memorise too much. 

This is the third revision themed post that I have put up in the past few weeks, to check out my revision tips, click here, and my unwind routine for the exam season, click here. 

I now have some sad news to share :(. From this week I will be reducing my two posts per week schedule to one post per week on a Sunday until the end of June. This will allow me to get my revision out of the way without stressing that I have to write a blogpost. I am sure many of you will understand that your hobbies go out of the window when you have exams coming up. 

How do you keep yourself motivated when revising? 

Lauren

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5 TIPS: FOR BLOGGERS

Now that I have been blogging for a year it's about time I shared the tips that I have picked up along the way. Blogging can be extremely rewarding but trust me it's not an easy road and there have been times where bloggers block hits (otherwise known as writers block) and I struggle to string a sentence together. 

That leads us nicely onto my first tip, keep going. Having the motivation to post weekly and have fresh ideas can be difficult so choose one or two days that you ant to publish a post on per week (on days that will work for you-which you can always change) and whenever you want to post more you can increase that number or decrease them when it's not going too well. I'm sure your readers will appreciate one amazing blogpost per week rather than two half hearted ones. 

Now this is a tip I don't often see mentioned and it is utilising bloglovin'. I love the bloglovin app, I browse for hours looking for new blogs to follow and I find it's a great way to find inspiration for new content. I use the option for saving posts and separate them into categories one for blog photography tips, blog content ideas and any useful blog related resources. 

I need to pay more attention to this tip, use social media. It is difficult to manage Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook accounts all for your blog, as well as keeping in the loop of your personal ones. On a Sunday afternoon I like to schedule all of my tweets for the week ahead using the Hootsuite app. Try and stay active on all of your social media, this just helps your blog links to be constantly advertised-allowing people to always find your content. 

Blue tac will be your best friend when taking photos. There's nothing worse when trying to take a photo of a product and it won't stop rolling around. I secure my products with a little bit of blue tac and they stay still so I can take the photo and it doesn't damage the product or background either.

Utilise your phones note page is yet another helpful tip. Whenever I am on the go and an idea for a blogpost pops into my mind the first thing I do is jot it down on my phones note page. Sometimes the ideas don't amount to much but it's useful to jot them down because it could add to another blogpost. It's always annoying when you have a great idea but forget what it was a few hours later.

If you're looking for another tips related post, check this one out, balancing school with blogging-link.

Do you have any blog related tips?

Lauren

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