Maintaining a Busy Schedule: Taking Care of YOU

Hi! Ella here. I am currently serving as president of OC and LOVE what I do. But at the same time, I am also very busy and have to split my time wisely. I am here today to give you guys a look into what all I do, and how I balance it all. So, lets jump right in!

First, lets take a look at the tasks I have to fit into my week:

- Job at Vineyard Vines and Wrangler

- Flame Apparel

- Onward Collaborative

- Church/ family life

- Friends

- And taking care of me

My Jobs: Purpose and Balance

People hear that I have 2 jobs and look at me like I have 4 heads. It's true! I work with 2 great companies. I work 3-4 days a week with my shifts ranging from 3-6 hours long. I mostly work after school and Saturdays. Having a job ensures some financial stability and gets me ready for some real life situations and experience. I am a firm believer everyone my age should have a job.

Working only 3-4 days a week ensures that I have a few days off to focus on myself. I have

a couple of days that I am "not available" for to make sure that I have time for some of my other activities. Those days are Wednesdays, Sundays, and Fridays. These are the days that I really work to make sure I'm getting stuff done outside of those jobs. I do hope that in the future, I won't have to have a job. But for now, it is for sure a need.

Flame Apparel

I am also the very proud owner of Flame Apparel. I make mostly custom apparel and do some boutique style selling. This year, I am revamping my brand and really focusing on sales and growing to eventually own a storefront. Flame has been something I have been passionate about for years now and is the dream of mine.

Flame has a lot of pieces to it. Definitely the most time consuming is the social media stuff. It requires planning and posting and creation of the content. It is for sure a long process. Another piece is the actual product management. Specializing in customs means I do a whole lot of making. Making one shirt or cup can be pretty time consuming.

Overall, Flame takes up a lot of my time and headspace but in the end it will be well worth it.

Onward Collaborative

As I stated above, I am also the president of OC. The "president" doesn't mean "boss" to our team. It's honestly just my part of the job. Right now since OC is in it's beginning stages, we are all just doing a whole bunch of research. I am in charge of a lot of the legal stuff and what it requires. We are all currently taking an online nonprofit management course. The nice part about the course is we can do it at our own time. Nonprofits take a very long time to get started, but in the end it will 100% be worth it.

Family life/ Friends/ Church etc.

I don't care how busy you are, friends, family and your overall support system is SO important. I try my best to put time into my friends and family as much as possible. After all, they are the ones who have supported us since the beginning. I would be nowhere without them!

I make sure to dedicate time each week to spend with my people. Whether it's dinner, or a sleepover, having a social life is really important to be able to balance mental health in a healthy way.

What do I do for myself?

I am terrible at making sure I take care of myself. But I do have a few things that I try to do as often as possible.

One of the things I love doing is going to the gym. I can't do it all that often, but I try my best to go whenever I possibly can. I also make sure to go to bed early and watch lots of TV, which yes. Greys Anatomy is self care to me :)