How to : motivate yourself to work from home.

Hiya guys and girls!

This is the first in my upcoming series of 'how to' posts - a series which will probably consist of mainly lifestyle/advice posts but maybe some tutorials or something too. Who knows! Anyway, I got the idea for this post earlier today when talking to a friend. As you may know, I am currently doing a PR internship and today I had to work from home. So, I had to wake up at 8:30 and get ready for work but not actually leave the house... My friend said that she would find this pretty difficult, but I think one thing I've picked up at uni is how to motivate myself to do work without actually going to work! So here is what works for me:

1. Get dressed - I know this sounds stupid, but what I mean is, don't be tempted to just work in bed in your pyjamas. If you actually get up and get dressed, you will feel ready to start your day of revision or work.
2. Don't open Facebook/ Twitter/ whatever when you start up your laptop - treat it the same as if you were at work, you wouldn't sit there checking your personal newsfeed for half the morning would you? Obviously if your job involved social media then do open up your business ones, just avoid your personal ones!
3. Have a tea break - you may as well make the most of the fact that you are at home and make yourself your favourite drink without having to pay millions for a Starbucks one.
4. Do sit at a desk - when on the laptop I tend to lounge on the sofa, but sitting at a desk with my laptop, notebook and cup of tea really makes me feel like I'm ready for work!
5. Finish on time! - because you are at home, it's very easy to work for longer than you usually would, so make sure you finish any work or revision related emails or reading by the time you would usually finish work or uni. I cannot count the number of times I've carried on revision until waaaay past an acceptable hour.

So that's what helps me, have you got any tips?

xxx

(Photo credit here.)

Sample Sunday - Origins GinZing Energy-boosting moisturiser.

Hiya!

How are you? This is suuuuper late but I thought I'd do a Sunday Sample post seeing as it's sunday, and I used a sample-sized product today. Makes sense, right? 

This week's sample is by a brand I've never used but have heard a lot about - Origins. The reason I haven't used it is because it is a but out of my price range as I do generally try and use budget skincare and make-up seeing as I am still a lowly student. So, when Adrienne over at The Sunday Girl (do check out her blog, she's one of the reasons I got into blogging!) pointed out on her blog facebook page that Boots were giving away samples of the Origins GinZing Energy-boosting moisturiser, I jumped at the chance. 

As you can see, I got a 1.5ml sachet. I've used around half this morning, and completely forgot about it the evening so I've got enough for another application left for tomorrow morning. Now, although the product is recommended for both AM and PM, because of the invigorating orange scent (hence the 'Energy-boosting'), I would personally use it in the morning to really wake me up. It doesn't have an SPF in it, so if this is something you're after then check out the rest of the Origins range to check out their day moisturisers which have SPFs. I don't mind this as I'm using a CC cream with SPF in it, and apparently layering them makes them less effective. Don't quote me on that, it's just something I heard!

Overall I would recommend this to a friend, however I don't think I will be buying it myself anytime soon as I already have a moisturiser which I quite like so I'll be using that up before I buy anything I think! This cream actually isn't as expensive as I thought Origins would be though, so I would consider buying this when I'm on the market for a new moisturiser!

What's your favourite Origins product?

xxx

Origins GinZing Energy-boosting moisturizer is available at Boots priced at £23 for 50ml.

Internship update!

Hey beauties!

I thought I would try something new and write regular updates of my work experience at Evelyn PR. Let me know if this is something you guys are interested in - I know I like reading stuff like this but everyone is different! 

Evelyn PR is a boutique PR agency run by Sarah specialising in the beauty sector, which is great as it's something I'm already interested in. With it being a small company, the position is unpaid (however, you will find that in the PR sector, a lot of internships are unpaid - it's just so competitive!). Luckily, I've been working all year in France and I of course have my student loan, so this isn't a problem for me. I would say that if you are serious about PR, be prepared to take opportunities such as this - the experience you will gain far outweighs the lack of pay! 

Anyway, I started last Monday so I've been working for just over a week now and I'm really enjoying it. Another benefit of working at a small company is that I've had the chance to do more of the 'important' things, such as emailing journalists and clients, and writing press releases! Last week started off with a client meeting, and I met the owner of one of the brands we do PR for. It was great to see the brainstorming and planning which goes into organising events. For the rest of the week, I worked with Sarah on promoting this particular event (it's huge!), as well as writing a few pieces of copy for magazines on another brand. So far this week, I've written a press release with the help of Sarah. Hopefully I'll be sending this out over the coming weeks and it would be really exciting to get some coverage from that, too.

Today, another girl joined us for work experience and by some miracle we are both bloggers, and both go to university in Birmingham - small world. However, this also makes me realise how there are lots of similarly experienced and qualified people out there. This is something we should all keep in mind for when we are job-hunting.

So, that's a quick summary of what I've been up to. Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything else you guys would like to know. 

xxx

P.S. Feel free to check out Evelyn PR, and we have a twitter too : @evelynprteam

Life Update - Back in England!

Hey guys!

So it's been a while (understatement)! I don't know why I haven't blogged in so long - I think it's just because I was so busy for the last month in France, and then I was feeling veeeryyy down in the dumps once I got home. Don't get me wrong, I love home but compared to all the travelling, easy work and packed schedule, back to reality is nowhere near as exciting.

I started work experience at Evelyn PR on Monday, and I'll be working with the lovely Sarah part time for most of the summer, hopefully! It's really great to be doing something that I enjoy and can get stuck into. I'm still going to look for another part time job for the summer as I like being busy!

Hopefully now that I'm in a proper routine, I can finally get back into a proper blogging schedule and post every other day like I used to.

How have you all been?

xxx.