Ruling My Schedule: A Journey to Balance and Productivity

I've always struggled with the idea of separating my work life from my personal life, especially since I work from home. It's easy to get sucked into the vortex of work and forget about everything else. I'd find myself working non-stop, barely taking breaks or sleeping at all, until I reached a point of burnout. It wasn't until some friends sat me down and asked me what was wrong that I realized I needed to make a change.

It took a few months of reflection and self-care for me to figure out a new approach to my work schedule. I created a more tangible and substantial routine, one that included time for rest, exercise, and socializing with friends. It wasn't easy, but it's been a game-changer for my overall health and happiness. I feel more energized and focused, and I've even started to enjoy the process of creating content for my videos.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was learning to disconnect from work-related tasks. Since I work from home, it can be easy to fall into the trap of working too much or never really "clocking out." But with some effort, I was able to establish clear boundaries between work and personal time. Now, when I'm done with a workday, I feel like I've truly earned my rest.

As I began to rebuild my routine, I also started thinking about the content I wanted to create and the goals I wanted to achieve in the new year. Setting clear objectives for my videos and YouTube presence has been incredibly helpful in keeping me motivated and focused. It's also given me a sense of direction and purpose, which is essential for maintaining productivity.

One of the things that's been really valuable for me is taking breaks from social media and other distractions. By creating space for myself to relax and recharge, I've found that my creativity and inspiration have increased. This newfound balance has also allowed me to connect with others on a deeper level, whether it's through comments on videos or discussions with friends.

In the end, ruling my schedule has been a journey of self-discovery and growth. It's taught me the importance of prioritizing my own needs and well-being, even when it comes to something as all-consuming as work. By establishing clear boundaries and creating space for rest and relaxation, I've found that I can be more productive, creative, and happy.

The Citadel: My Patreon Community

As I continue on this journey of productivity and creativity, I'm also excited to share my progress with a community of like-minded individuals who support me through my Patreon page, The Citadel. This exclusive community offers members access to special content, including live shows, behind-the-scenes insights, and more.

By joining The Citadel, you'll be supporting the creation of high-quality content that brings value and joy to your life. In return, you'll receive exclusive perks, such as early access to new videos, personalized interactions with me, and a sense of belonging to a community that shares my passions and values.

So if you're looking for a way to support creators like myself and connect with others who share your interests, consider joining The Citadel today. With its diverse range of content and community-driven approach, it's the perfect platform for anyone looking to explore new ideas, learn from experts, or simply have fun while doing so.

Zenny Optical: Sponsoring This Video

I'd like to extend a huge thank you to Zenny Optical for sponsoring this video. Their stunning glasses frames have not only improved my own style but also provided me with the perfect excuse to take a break and show off their latest designs. Whether you're looking to upgrade your wardrobe or simply treat yourself, I highly recommend checking out Zenny Optical's collection.

By using the link in my description, you can customize your frames, use your prescription if needed, or opt for a stylish choice that suits your personality. With Zenny Optical's commitment to quality and style, you'll be looking sharp and feeling confident in no time.

As I continue on this journey of productivity and creativity, I'm grateful for the support of my patrons and sponsors like Zenny Optical. Together, we can create something truly special – a community that inspires, educates, and entertains, all while having fun along the way.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthank you so much to sunny optical for sponsoring today's video i am absolutely in love with this show yeah we've got a bit of a messy moment we've got books everywhere why is this book a little bit taller here hello recording friends welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new my name is mel and today i bring you a super different style of video but one that i am very excited about now when i was thinking about content for the new year i was mostly thinking about what things are book related yet sort of different that i haven't necessarily incorporated into my channel now i have done the classical bookshelf tour where i show you every single book in my collection but i've never necessarily done a bookshelf organization sort of video i did when i built my shelves but not a lot after that and the reality is i reorganized my bookshelves a lot last year now that we're here i feel the need to reorganize the shelves i don't know if i have a rhyme or reason as to the end result i don't even know what the end result is going to be so we're going to figure this out together today and before we walk into the actual reorganization part of this which will take forever i do need to give a shout out to the sponsor of today's video which is zenny optical now if you guys have been noticing if you guys have been paying attention both in the last video in this video i've been sporting a new frames i felt the need to kind of revamp them walking into the new year and danny optical really came in clutch with these new pairs of glasses now if you guys are not familiar with zenny optical it is essentially an online website that sells super high quality and super affordable frames that you can customize however you want prescription non-prescription blue light blocker sunglasses and you can choose everything in regards to color as well for the frames and the hues of the lens themselves i am fairly new to wearing glasses and it's mostly to read and also a stylistic choice for me i love wearing them and so the first pair that i chose i love kind of classic frames i don't tend to play with color a lot or these store to shell round the glasses they're super big they frame my face super well and the prescription in these you guys it is literally hands down the best prescription that i've gotten so far the next pair of glasses i chose were these brow line glasses they are incredibly dainty they are super thin and i love them i have always kind of dreamt about these hat lines sort of glasses this time around i really wanted a pair of glasses that had no prescription something that i could use for my computer when i'm working only blue light blockers and so i chose the sepal vera round glasses and these are everything these are the ones that i wore in my last video and because i loved that last style so much i also got sunglasses in the same style with a green tint on the lens one of the coolest things about sunny optical 2 is that it makes the shopping experience incredibly easy because they have a virtual try-on feature that will literally scan your face and you can try on the eyeglasses from their website and that feature will make it extremely easy because then you'll be able to categorize by face shape color and style which makes the experience super easy so if you do want to text any optical out i will be leaving my link at the top of my description so that you guys can go peruse your site see everything that they have to offer and potentially get some new frames for the new year as well so thank you so much to zany optical for sponsoring today's video and let's get into the bookshelf reorganization let's go so this is what the bookshelf looks like right now and again a lot of books and there's just so much happening but you can also see that there's a lot of books that are just kind of thrown on there then there's a lot of empty areas because i took books out of here and put them in my office area i don't know if i want tight order or this i feel like i do want high order i kind of want to try that again and see where it takes me and i feel like since i've unhauled so many books and i've ushered new ones in i i think i have a better semblance of what it would look like if i did and this time around it would have a little bit more order we'll see what happens the reason why i did this though initially was because i didn't want to worry about having books all be the same size i feel like this can be so much more and it can be so much prettier like yes this is pretty but i also feel like i've rationalized the fact that it it's it's ugly but it's pretty if that makes sense in order to get a better vision of things i'm gonna have to take all of these off the shelf and see where i go from there so i think that's what we're gonna do welcome to my floor okay we are gonna get started on organizing these books by height i think that might be like my best bet and kind of start putting them on the shelf as i have kind of like 10 to 15 20 books at a time that are the same height so i don't even know where to start i mean i guess i do have a lot of dollar like book of the month size hardcovers so maybe this is a good starting point because they're all kind of near me so so fred so we are here this is what the bookshelf looks like right now everything has been sectioned off into height order so that part is 10 out of 10. still have some books on the floor though that i couldn't allocate in the actual bookshelf area so i will get a better sense of space once i start kind of like putting everything in a trifle place great starting point and we can now start organizing stuff and making sure that everything looks good and kind of figure out the color order and all that good stuff so i am excited let us get started oh my god i'm literally facetiming with a friend and the way that the honk just went yeah we've got a bit of a messy moment we've got books everywhere looks everywhere unhide order hello books okay i had to dispatch a few books and put them on the shelves now that they've been kind of organized by heights kind of free of space and keep on going i'm looking at some paperbacks and trying to figure out what's the uh see paperbacks are gonna be a little bit trickier because a lot of them are not the same size but i'm gonna try my hardest here see some of them are like they're cut wrong like they're kind of tilted i will just have to forgive them i thought i'd take this opportunity and talk to you guys and just babble about what's been going on lately i took a break as you guys would know it was a week-long break all the trucks today all of the motorcycles i managed to start new shows finish and start and finish movies obviously and one that i started watching during my break which was actually pretty freaking neat is ted lasso i am absolutely in love with this show jason is so funny instead and just the humor just it works for me so lighthearted but still packed a punch where it should it is literally just incredible and i don't know why it took me so long to watch it but we're almost done with season two i also managed to squeeze in a re-watch of euphoria since the new season is coming out my brother was also watching it for the first time and he really really enjoyed it and what else have we watched this week we watched don't look up very mediocre movie very mediocre execution so totally deaf i could cry i started watching the matrix movies which i've actually never watched before and i started my re-watch of shark tank if you guys don't know i absolutely love shark tank when i was younger i mean i didn't necessarily want to go the business route though at one point i did when i started doing makeup because i obviously did start my own business entrepreneurship project with the whole makeup thing and so i loved watching shark tank even then and i it's been a minute since i've watched it actually and it makes just like such a great show to watch as i eat because it's not something that i necessarily have to be watching but i can just listen to when i kind of grasp the concept and it felt like the longest week of my life i'm not gonna lie i was not used to taking breaks you guys know me if you've been here for a while then you know that i would be what you could catalogue as a workaholic i don't know how to pace myself don't know when to stop myself my work is my escapist if my work is my life and in so many different ways i have let my schedule rule me instead of me ruling my schedule which is not a healthy way to live i think especially given the fact that i work from home i do everything from here it's so hard to have that separation between life and work and it's very hard to say i'm clocking myself out going to bed and so it very quickly became something that was not fun or healthy for me i literally reached the point of burnout without realizing that i was burned out i was so far into it that i couldn't even tell what it was and so it took a few friends sitting me down and being like mel what's happening and i went i don't know it was the best decision i could have ever made i feel so energized and healthy and i have figured out kind of like a schedule for myself that is a little bit more quote unquote normal than what i was doing before it feels a lot more tangible and substantial versus what i was doing before which was not sleeping not eating and just working constantly right now i'm kind of constantly trying to break out of this cycle of work and work and work and not much else why is this book a little bit taller to you it's been a journey i'm not gonna lie and it's been difficult also not gonna lie but it again the weeks serve its purpose and we are at a much better place if i do say so myself just a lot of balance and again reassessing how i've been doing things for a while okay we are making progress friends and i am just super ready to put everything that i've learned about myself and that i have kind of set for this year into practice i think also a big part of this break was kind of goal setting for the new year and kind of making sure that i had a clear aim of what sorts of videos i want to put up what sort of content i want to be creating and all of that good stuff so again it really served its purpose for a number of reasons and i think more than anything i just kind of had to ground myself and figure out exactly what approach i wanted to take to my work and my video making and content creation this year i'm so excited for everything patreon related i am so excited for everything youtube related i just think everything's gonna be so much more fun let me kind of speed through this and then we'll come back and we'll figure it out then ask you what we're doing and this is an odd angle i know what i think i'm going to do here is kind of put the books that i'm going to read relatively soon as i uh i ran out of space on the shelves and uh that's where we're at and yeah you guys that is it for today that was my bookshelf reorganization overview tour i hope that you guys enjoyed this video if you did don't forget to give it a massive thumbs up down below and also comment down below what system do you use for your bookshelves i feel like i'm always constantly asking that question but i'm genuinely curious do you organize by color by author by high do you do mix and match by genre there are so many ways to organize your bookshelves i feel like i've done it all by now i've done hype before i've done color coded before i've done by genre i've done alphabetical within genres and it's just been you know a journey with figuring out what works for me and i constantly switch it around as you can tell so definitely let me know all of that down below let me know what you're currently reading i feel like that's always a good prompt to create some sort of discussion in the comments section and let me know what you think of the new setup i am genuinely so excited i feel like it also looks ten times better than what i had before and this feels at this point in time more me than the other setup don't forget to subscribe down below if you haven't done so already i am constantly uploading videos that i am sure you do not want to miss and if you want to support the channel further i do have a patreon we call ourselves the citadel and there is a bunch of exciting stuff happening over there as well we have exclusive videos a discord server live shows and a bunch of stuff that you're not going to see here so if you do want to join us the link for that is always in my description alongside all of my social medias once more thank you so so much to zenny optical for sponsoring this video if you want to get new frames customize them use your prescription or not if it's a stylistic choice i will be leaving them linked at the top of the description in case you guys want to check them out and renew your glasses for the new year so thank you so much to them for sponsoring this video i love you guys and i shall see you on the next one bye guys youthank you so much to sunny optical for sponsoring today's video i am absolutely in love with this show yeah we've got a bit of a messy moment we've got books everywhere why is this book a little bit taller here hello recording friends welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new my name is mel and today i bring you a super different style of video but one that i am very excited about now when i was thinking about content for the new year i was mostly thinking about what things are book related yet sort of different that i haven't necessarily incorporated into my channel now i have done the classical bookshelf tour where i show you every single book in my collection but i've never necessarily done a bookshelf organization sort of video i did when i built my shelves but not a lot after that and the reality is i reorganized my bookshelves a lot last year now that we're here i feel the need to reorganize the shelves i don't know if i have a rhyme or reason as to the end result i don't even know what the end result is going to be so we're going to figure this out together today and before we walk into the actual reorganization part of this which will take forever i do need to give a shout out to the sponsor of today's video which is zenny optical now if you guys have been noticing if you guys have been paying attention both in the last video in this video i've been sporting a new frames i felt the need to kind of revamp them walking into the new year and danny optical really came in clutch with these new pairs of glasses now if you guys are not familiar with zenny optical it is essentially an online website that sells super high quality and super affordable frames that you can customize however you want prescription non-prescription blue light blocker sunglasses and you can choose everything in regards to color as well for the frames and the hues of the lens themselves i am fairly new to wearing glasses and it's mostly to read and also a stylistic choice for me i love wearing them and so the first pair that i chose i love kind of classic frames i don't tend to play with color a lot or these store to shell round the glasses they're super big they frame my face super well and the prescription in these you guys it is literally hands down the best prescription that i've gotten so far the next pair of glasses i chose were these brow line glasses they are incredibly dainty they are super thin and i love them i have always kind of dreamt about these hat lines sort of glasses this time around i really wanted a pair of glasses that had no prescription something that i could use for my computer when i'm working only blue light blockers and so i chose the sepal vera round glasses and these are everything these are the ones that i wore in my last video and because i loved that last style so much i also got sunglasses in the same style with a green tint on the lens one of the coolest things about sunny optical 2 is that it makes the shopping experience incredibly easy because they have a virtual try-on feature that will literally scan your face and you can try on the eyeglasses from their website and that feature will make it extremely easy because then you'll be able to categorize by face shape color and style which makes the experience super easy so if you do want to text any optical out i will be leaving my link at the top of my description so that you guys can go peruse your site see everything that they have to offer and potentially get some new frames for the new year as well so thank you so much to zany optical for sponsoring today's video and let's get into the bookshelf reorganization let's go so this is what the bookshelf looks like right now and again a lot of books and there's just so much happening but you can also see that there's a lot of books that are just kind of thrown on there then there's a lot of empty areas because i took books out of here and put them in my office area i don't know if i want tight order or this i feel like i do want high order i kind of want to try that again and see where it takes me and i feel like since i've unhauled so many books and i've ushered new ones in i i think i have a better semblance of what it would look like if i did and this time around it would have a little bit more order we'll see what happens the reason why i did this though initially was because i didn't want to worry about having books all be the same size i feel like this can be so much more and it can be so much prettier like yes this is pretty but i also feel like i've rationalized the fact that it it's it's ugly but it's pretty if that makes sense in order to get a better vision of things i'm gonna have to take all of these off the shelf and see where i go from there so i think that's what we're gonna do welcome to my floor okay we are gonna get started on organizing these books by height i think that might be like my best bet and kind of start putting them on the shelf as i have kind of like 10 to 15 20 books at a time that are the same height so i don't even know where to start i mean i guess i do have a lot of dollar like book of the month size hardcovers so maybe this is a good starting point because they're all kind of near me so so fred so we are here this is what the bookshelf looks like right now everything has been sectioned off into height order so that part is 10 out of 10. still have some books on the floor though that i couldn't allocate in the actual bookshelf area so i will get a better sense of space once i start kind of like putting everything in a trifle place great starting point and we can now start organizing stuff and making sure that everything looks good and kind of figure out the color order and all that good stuff so i am excited let us get started oh my god i'm literally facetiming with a friend and the way that the honk just went yeah we've got a bit of a messy moment we've got books everywhere looks everywhere unhide order hello books okay i had to dispatch a few books and put them on the shelves now that they've been kind of organized by heights kind of free of space and keep on going i'm looking at some paperbacks and trying to figure out what's the uh see paperbacks are gonna be a little bit trickier because a lot of them are not the same size but i'm gonna try my hardest here see some of them are like they're cut wrong like they're kind of tilted i will just have to forgive them i thought i'd take this opportunity and talk to you guys and just babble about what's been going on lately i took a break as you guys would know it was a week-long break all the trucks today all of the motorcycles i managed to start new shows finish and start and finish movies obviously and one that i started watching during my break which was actually pretty freaking neat is ted lasso i am absolutely in love with this show jason is so funny instead and just the humor just it works for me so lighthearted but still packed a punch where it should it is literally just incredible and i don't know why it took me so long to watch it but we're almost done with season two i also managed to squeeze in a re-watch of euphoria since the new season is coming out my brother was also watching it for the first time and he really really enjoyed it and what else have we watched this week we watched don't look up very mediocre movie very mediocre execution so totally deaf i could cry i started watching the matrix movies which i've actually never watched before and i started my re-watch of shark tank if you guys don't know i absolutely love shark tank when i was younger i mean i didn't necessarily want to go the business route though at one point i did when i started doing makeup because i obviously did start my own business entrepreneurship project with the whole makeup thing and so i loved watching shark tank even then and i it's been a minute since i've watched it actually and it makes just like such a great show to watch as i eat because it's not something that i necessarily have to be watching but i can just listen to when i kind of grasp the concept and it felt like the longest week of my life i'm not gonna lie i was not used to taking breaks you guys know me if you've been here for a while then you know that i would be what you could catalogue as a workaholic i don't know how to pace myself don't know when to stop myself my work is my escapist if my work is my life and in so many different ways i have let my schedule rule me instead of me ruling my schedule which is not a healthy way to live i think especially given the fact that i work from home i do everything from here it's so hard to have that separation between life and work and it's very hard to say i'm clocking myself out going to bed and so it very quickly became something that was not fun or healthy for me i literally reached the point of burnout without realizing that i was burned out i was so far into it that i couldn't even tell what it was and so it took a few friends sitting me down and being like mel what's happening and i went i don't know it was the best decision i could have ever made i feel so energized and healthy and i have figured out kind of like a schedule for myself that is a little bit more quote unquote normal than what i was doing before it feels a lot more tangible and substantial versus what i was doing before which was not sleeping not eating and just working constantly right now i'm kind of constantly trying to break out of this cycle of work and work and work and not much else why is this book a little bit taller to you it's been a journey i'm not gonna lie and it's been difficult also not gonna lie but it again the weeks serve its purpose and we are at a much better place if i do say so myself just a lot of balance and again reassessing how i've been doing things for a while okay we are making progress friends and i am just super ready to put everything that i've learned about myself and that i have kind of set for this year into practice i think also a big part of this break was kind of goal setting for the new year and kind of making sure that i had a clear aim of what sorts of videos i want to put up what sort of content i want to be creating and all of that good stuff so again it really served its purpose for a number of reasons and i think more than anything i just kind of had to ground myself and figure out exactly what approach i wanted to take to my work and my video making and content creation this year i'm so excited for everything patreon related i am so excited for everything youtube related i just think everything's gonna be so much more fun let me kind of speed through this and then we'll come back and we'll figure it out then ask you what we're doing and this is an odd angle i know what i think i'm going to do here is kind of put the books that i'm going to read relatively soon as i uh i ran out of space on the shelves and uh that's where we're at and yeah you guys that is it for today that was my bookshelf reorganization overview tour i hope that you guys enjoyed this video if you did don't forget to give it a massive thumbs up down below and also comment down below what system do you use for your bookshelves i feel like i'm always constantly asking that question but i'm genuinely curious do you organize by color by author by high do you do mix and match by genre there are so many ways to organize your bookshelves i feel like i've done it all by now i've done hype before i've done color coded before i've done by genre i've done alphabetical within genres and it's just been you know a journey with figuring out what works for me and i constantly switch it around as you can tell so definitely let me know all of that down below let me know what you're currently reading i feel like that's always a good prompt to create some sort of discussion in the comments section and let me know what you think of the new setup i am genuinely so excited i feel like it also looks ten times better than what i had before and this feels at this point in time more me than the other setup don't forget to subscribe down below if you haven't done so already i am constantly uploading videos that i am sure you do not want to miss and if you want to support the channel further i do have a patreon we call ourselves the citadel and there is a bunch of exciting stuff happening over there as well we have exclusive videos a discord server live shows and a bunch of stuff that you're not going to see here so if you do want to join us the link for that is always in my description alongside all of my social medias once more thank you so so much to zenny optical for sponsoring this video if you want to get new frames customize them use your prescription or not if it's a stylistic choice i will be leaving them linked at the top of the description in case you guys want to check them out and renew your glasses for the new year so thank you so much to them for sponsoring this video i love you guys and i shall see you on the next one bye guys you\n"