How to Catch Up.

There was a week-long period this month when I just did. not. stop. I had a long list of things that absolutely had to be finished before spring break. Most of it was reading which, I'll admit, is the most tedious task in the world. No matter how much I love reading about the Middle East, fifty pages later, I'm pretty much dead.

But I did it.
My entire list was completed. Two days earlier than I planned, actually.
Here's how I caught up on my list:

• Write it all down. I can't even count how many times I've advocated for physical to-do lists on this blog, but I'll say it again just in case you forgot. The easiest way to get started on a busy schedule is to write it down on paper. Visualize it. 

• Stay focused. It's really easy for me to be distracted, especially when I have amazing friends I'd love to spend time with. But I knew that the list was going to linger in the back of my mind regardless of what I was doing, so it was vital that the homework get finished first. To stay focused, I made sure that I studied alone. 

• Tackle the big things first. For me, the "big" things on my list were two relatively short essays. Just five pages each, no biggie. The problem? They're time-consuming! I made sure that I tackled these big projects first, before I lost brain power and energy. 

• Reward yourself. My "rewards" came at the end of the day -- an episode or two of Make It or Break It, a movie, or a few hours in the student center with friends. 

Overall, the most important part is to keep the end in sight. I knew that if I could power through the week of studying and hardcore effort, that spring break would be completely stress free, and I would be able to enjoy my mom's visit. 

Keep not settling,

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Keep Not Settling Playlist #3

There's been so much going on lately, and I've been experiencing some serious blogging withdrawals.   But it's ok because KNS is back in full swing! Spring Break is this week, and I ended up with a pretty nasty cold (my fifth time being sick this school year....yay) but now that I'm feeling better, writing is at the top of my schedule. 

OH, and my mom is here with me!!! Double yay! Some pretty amazing things have happened since she's been here. I'm so glad she's here with me. Unfortunately, she has to go home this weekend. Boo. 

I've been listening to a lot of music this month. There have been days when my Spotify playlists keep my sane. So here's a playlist of the songs I've had stuck on repeat...

Keep not settling,

Looking forward to...

There are several things I'm looking forward to in the near (and not-so-near) future. As much as I've been trying to stay focused on the present lately, I can't help but think about some of the exciting things that are coming up in the next few weeks and months: 

• Mom's coming to NC! Yes, that's right! She's visiting me over Spring Break! Originally, the plan was for me to go home, but the tables have turned, and that's super exciting. We're going to have lots of fun, I'm sure. 

• Eighteen. I turn 18 on the 27th... Crazy. I remember when I was little, it seemed like forever between birthdays.. and now it's like all of a sudden, I only have 6 days of seventeen left. Bummer. 

• Model UN. I've gotten involved with some new things on campus, and one of the most exciting ones is Model UN! There's a regional conference coming up in April, and I'm pumped to see how that goes. This fits in perfectly with my love for political science. 

• Taylor Swift! Yesterday, my Big and I got tickets to see Taylor Swift's 1989 tour! It's not until October, but we have sweet seats. After nine years of being a fan, I'm finally getting the opportunity to see one of my favorite artists in person. 

Keep not settling,

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Social Media.

In today's world, the way you represent yourself on social media is super important. Really, when you think about it, you can't avoid some aspects of the online world. As time goes by, keeping yourself up to date and familiar with online processes can be extremely helpful. 

 

There are several things I've learned about social media since I've started blogging. There are several facets to an online "persona" and each are equally important. Here's what I've come to know: 

• Just because it's the internet doesn't mean you can throw away professionalism. In every email I write, I make sure that I maintain some element of professionalism. Even if I'm just emailing a professor to ask a one-line question, I make sure that I've formatted everything properly. This says a lot about how you respect other people, even if you aren't seeing them face-to-face. 

• Please don't throw grammar out the window. This ties into professionalism, and it's something I've noticed not a lot of people pay attention to. Grammar, whether it's online or offline, is such an important part of life... just because you've joined the internet "scene" doesn't mean you should forget about it. 

• Set standards for yourself. Before I started Keep Not Settling, I thought long and hard about how I wanted to portray myself through this blog. What tone of voice did I want to write in? What kind of content would I put up? Even though this seems like a duh kind of thing, I think it's very important to decide how you want to be viewed online.

• Be aware of others. There have been times when I've witnessed people on the internet abuse usernames/screen names to attack others, and it's incredibly sad. In my opinion, there's nothing more important about social media etiquette than maintaining your awareness of others. 

Keep not settling,

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#EyesOnIt: iPhone Cases

Yesterday was the first day in quite a while that I've missed a scheduled blog post. I felt terrible all day for not posting but it really did come down to how I was feeling (and it wasn't "human"-like). My  apologies. As of today, it's back to normal. Today's post is a new installment of....

J.Crew | Lilly Pulitzer | Kate Spade

I've been interested in finding a new case for my iPhone lately, since the one I'm currently using is beginning to deteriorate. The problem is trying to find places that are still keeping up to date with producing 5/5s cases, since the 6 and 6plus are now so popular (thanks for that, apple). When I have free time, I'll do google searches for nice cases... at one point, I think I had a list of about twenty that I liked... oops. 

I've narrowed my options down to three, as you can see above, but I'm not sure which one yet. Decisions, decisions. Who wants to bet that I spend so long deciding that my current case is going to actually fall off? Yep. 

Keep not settling,

Loving Yourself First.

In honor of Valentines Day this weekend, I thought it would be fun to do a post about all the reasons why it's important to love yourself first. Now, don't get me wrong, loving other people is important and being in relationships can be rewarding... but at the end of the day, we have to recognize ourselves and appreciate ourselves to be able to appreciate and love anyone else. This isn't too serious of a list... just a few fun things to think about! 

LOVE YOURSELF FIRST... BECAUSE: 

• Only you really know exactly how you like your coffee. 
• Sometimes, nobody else is going to sit down and willingly watch your favorite trash TV show. 
• You know what it takes to make YOU happy. Do it. 
• Watching your favorite movie just for "the feels" is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. 
• Even though there are other people who love you, you're the one to fall back on. 
• Trusting yourself is important.
• ... And, if you're an introvert (like me), you're going to be spending a heck of a lot of time with yourself. So you might as well love it. 

Keep not settling,

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Bring Them Back! My Favorite Childhood TV Shows.

When I watched TV as a kid, it was pretty much always an even 3-way split between the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Discovery Channel. Today's post is all about the television shows I'd love to see brought back, even if just for a little while. I had such a hard time narrowing this down to five shows.. really, I want all of them back.

ONE | That's So Raven 

TWO | Rocket Power 

THREE | Lizzie McGuire 

FOUR | As Told By Ginger 

FIVE | Rugrats 

Let's just face it, the late 90s and early 2000s had the best range of television shows out there. I still like to pretend I'm a kid and watch any of these whenever I get the chance. Sometimes, I'll catch ones like Hey Arnold on Nick-at-Nite, and there are one or two Rugrats movies on Netflix. What really needs to happen is this: Disney and Nickelodeon should both put out box sets of classic cartoons and tv shows. I'd buy all of them. 

Keep not settling,

How I Operate

Recently I took one of those cheesy little Facebook quizzes, just for kicks. It was all about determining how you "operate." Unsurprisingly, I got labeled as a "rational" and a "thinker" and, well, I can't deny that those things are true. While I think it's silly to try and determine how someone learns or thinks by a few answers to trivial questions, it prompted me to write this post. 

There are four extremely important facets of my everyday life that I do differently from most people on my hall, or just people I know in general. Over time, especially since being at school, I've had these things pointed out to me by others, and I've realized them in myself. 

1. I work ahead. I've noticed that a huge part of being a "college student" for many people is perfecting the art of procrastination. Under no circumstances am I ever comfortable with leaving assignments or important social "contracts" to the last minute. When it does happen, I panic. Instead, I like to start thinking about projects as early as possible. 

1. Once I establish a position, I keep it. That's not to say that everyone I know is wishy-washy in their beliefs, because that's absolutely not true. But I've always been exceptionally good at maintaining grounded views. The key here is that I really try not to have a solid opinion on anything until I know as much as possible about it. Pretty much everything I do involves an informed decision, even if I don't want it to. 

1. I take impossibly long notes. About everything. One of my friends commented on my notes in class a few days ago, and it made me start to look around at everyone else's notes... in a world shorthand, I have to do everything the long way. This comes with knowing that my brain can't work with only keywords. I need sentences. So, I take long notes, even if it takes forever. I've come to terms with the fact that my brain won't ever let me have a break.  

1. I work hard to know my stressors. I think it says a lot about a person when they know how to control their levels of stress in certain environments. Over the last few months, I've carefully watched my professors let stressful things slide while teaching their class. I've done my best to draw from that. Recently, I've spent a lot of time thinking about stressors in my life and healthier ways to react to them... I've gotten pretty good at dealing with stress. I turn it into positive energy. 

What are some things you do differently from everyone else? 

Keep not settling,

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Balance.

I had a discussion recently with my (wonderful) roommate on the importance of finding balance and what it means to be "balanced." We both considered different parts of life that need to be properly maintained to find an equilibrium, and talked through why each were important. 

That conversation inspired me to write this post.

Balance, by dictionary definition, is: 

1. A state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc. 
2. Something used to produce equilibrium; counterpoise.
3. Mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgement, etc. 

Our conversation fell mostly on the last definition. As relatively new college students, mental "steadiness" and emotional "stability" aren't always the easiest to find. There have been several occasions where one or both of us have felt like we were going absolutely crazy. 

And that's normal.

I think that one of the most important parts of finding "balance" is realizing that sometimes we need to be off-balance. Without experiencing craziness or some negative emotional state, it's difficult to recognize when everything is actually good. 

There was more than one time during last semester where I honestly thought there was no other option than to give up. When, as an introverted person, I absolutely needed alone time and there was nowhere to find it; when I was fed up with having to get up at such an ugly hour for my 8:30 am math class; when I felt like I wasn't getting all that I could from my classes. These things seem trivial, and they definitely are, but they were pivotal moments in realizing that I know how to find balance. 

It's important to know where your balance "spot" is, what you need to do to get there, why you need it. As I was thinking through different parts of my life while talking to my roommate, I learned that the process of finding balance, for me, is very simple. I have to think about where I'm off-balance, and consider what I need to do to level it off... From there, I pull a signature "Brie" and make about 40,000 to-do lists. 

The bottom line is, it's important to consider and appreciate those off-balance times to really understand why balance is such a wonderful thing. 

How do you find balance? 

Keep not settling,

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Inspiration Boards + DIY

As I mentioned in yesterday's Weekly Roundup, I've been slightly obsessed with inspiration boards for about a year. I've had this post planned in my head for well over a month, and it's been written into my blog planner as, dun dun dun, Keep Not Settling's first DIY! Get excited! 

Before we get to the do-it-yourself aspect of this post, I wanted to share a few pictures of my favorite inspiration boards with you. 

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I've always loved the spontaneous look of inspiration boards. Knowing that they've been put together over a period of time, and that they probably won't be the same in a few days, weeks, months. As much as I love consistency, I can really appreciate how inconsistent inspiration boards are. Maybe that's why I like them so much! 

After looking at pictures of other people's inspiration boards for so long, I decided to venture out and make my own, smaller, dorm-friendly version. Take a look at how you can do the same (on pretty much any scale)! This DIY is insanely simple.. it took me about 45 minutes! 

What you'll need: 

• Cork board 
• Pillow case
• Frame
• Paint
• Paint brushes 
• Hot glue gun & glue 

I didn't have a hot glue gun before this project, so I had to buy one. But if I didn't, the total cost of this project would've been about $20. 

I started by laying out two pieces of cork board side-by-side and Scotch taped them together. This was only because the frame I chose was rectangular and the cork is square. Then, I traced around the inside of the frame on the conjoined cork boards to get proper sizing. 

The next part is pretty straightforward: I cut the cork board into a rectangle.

I repeated this process to create a second layer of the cork board since the individual layers are pretty thin. This ensures that push pins won't go straight through to the other side. 

After letting the hot glue gun warm up for about five minutes, I hot glued the two layers of cork together. This was the hardest part, making sure that the corners were aligned and everything was in the proper place without letting the hot glue dry (which takes 10-15 seconds). 

I ended up deciding to paint the top of the cork board with one generous layer of white paint. This is only because I picked out a white pillow case to use as the board's cover. Noe that if you're using a dark pillowcase/material, or one that's completely opaque, this step might not be necessary. 

While the white paint was drying, I moved on to painting the frame. I used one of my favorite Martha Stewart paint colors, which ended up complimenting the coral triangles on the pillowcase perfectly! I only did one layer of paint on the frame and I wasn't to worried about a little bit of the wood peeking through the paint. 

This step was definitely the longest part, given the shape of -- and cutouts in -- the frame. 

Once the cork board had dried completely, I placed it into the pillowcase and pushed it to one corner. I took an extra minute to line up the seams properly to make sure that the triangle pattern wouldn't be crooked on the front side. Then, I cut the pillowcase to leave a two-inch border around the board. 

The next step was to pull the border to the back side and hot glue it down.

The final step was to attach the cork board to the frame! I did this from the back side by aligning the cork board, adding some hot glue to the backside edge of the frame, and then hot gluing around all 4 edges of the cork board once it was attached to the frame. The last step was to ensure stability, since the two-layer cork was considerably heavy. Note: A stronger glue could be substituted in at this step, but so far I've found that the hot glue works perfectly fine. 

And TA-DA! One modestly sized inspiration board perfect for my dorm room. I added some printouts of my all-time favorite pins, an inspirational quote, and some of my recent travel tickets. I'ms sure that as I collect inspirational or interesting items, that they'll make it up on this board.

Let me know if you're going to try this DIY!

Keep not settling,

Planners.

If you've been reading my blog for a while know, you'll know that I'm a huge advocate for planners/agendas. Seriously, my life pretty much revolves around keeping my planners organized. If they're not in order, I'm not in order. 

Planners came into my life when I was a Sophomore in high school. I'd just started online school, and I wanted a way to keep track of my daily tasks without having to jump from class-to-class webpages all the time. That year started my obsession with planners. Not going to lie, I'm obsessed with buying and keeping all sorts of planners. I currently have 3, 2 for school and 1 for Keep Not Settling. As strange as that sounds, it's actually not hard to keep track of them all.

My two Lilly Pulitzer agendas are dedicated to school, whether that be assignments, meetings, or other random functions. The smaller of the two goes with me literally everywhere. The inside isn't as pretty, because it's where I jot important information down quickly during the day. When I'm in between or finished with classes, then I'll transfer it over to the larger agenda that I actually look at when I'm studying or making plans with others. Here's a picture of the two agendas from the same week... Note how much better the big one looks. 

Sounds strange, I know, but it's definitely a system that works for me. I like my main academic agenda to be pretty and colorful, sorted out by class (also in class-time order). I always highlight the tasks I've finished in yellow, but other colors -- such as pink, orange and blue -- are reserved for highlighting events, workout schedules, or my to-do lists.

As for my blogging planner... This one is much more straightforward than my school agendas. I use a separate notebook for actual post ideas, and then transfer them into appropriate weekday spots in this agenda. I include a working post title, a general outline for how I want to write the post, as well as social media check boxes to make sure that I've shared them all to my networks. I don't use colored pens in this agenda because, well, there's no need. For me, blog planning is pretty straightforward. The only color you'll see are sticky notes, where I'll leave myself miscellaneous reminders. 

If, for some reason, I've managed to convince you that planners aren't a completely scary or mind-boggling concept, here's a few of my best tips for starting with a new agenda: 

• Develop a system. This takes time, and it will change. My process for keeping agendas today is not what it was when I was in high school. I have more going on in my life now, and more specific deadlines. For example, I never used anything but pencil and a yellow highlighter in high school. Now, well, you can see how crazy it is. Take the time to experiment week to week to find what kind of system works for you. 

• Be consistent. Planners lose their purpose if you don't keep up with them. 

• Find a planner that makes you want to use it. There are about a million and two different kinds of planners on the market. I've grown to love the Lilly Pulitzer academic agendas because they're colorful both on the outside an the inside. Just looking at the agenda makes me happy. Shop around to find one that fits your needs. 

• It doesn't have to be perfect. This was a hard lesson for me to learn. As a perfectionist, I never want my agenda to change once my pen has marked the page. However, I've learned that white out tape is a wonderful - and often times necessary - thing. Life happens and plans change or assignments get pushed forward or back.  

• Carry it with you. For me, carrying my agenda with me was key to using it often when I first started. Jotting down important dates as they come along will get you used to having a planner/agenda AND prevent you from forgetting. 

• If paper's not your thing, use online alternatives. Google Calendar is wonderful and accessible from pretty much everywhere. iStudiez Pro on the App Store for Mac/iPhone/iPad users is also a great alternative. 

Keep not settling,

Houses.

I've always been fascinated by architecture and home design (it's the only reason why I play the Sims). While interior design has always been -- and will probably always be -- my foremost love, I love just scrolling through home designs on the internet. Given that it's been something I've done a lot of lately, I thought I might as well do a blog post on it. 

I could easily look at pictures of houses for hours. I love to imagine what the inside looks like, how people liven them... Just knowing that such beautiful homes actually exist makes me sad that my town in California is so cookie-cutter. Personally, I think there is a lot to be said about the individuality of the outside of a home. Here's a peek at 5 of my favorite exteriors (currently):

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When I picture my dream house, it often looks a lot like these. Colonial style with columns and a wrap-around porch, ginormous windows and double front doors. It's easy to dream it all up, it really is.

Keep not settling,

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