It’s the first week of February and thank goodness… Did anybody else feel like January was the longest month ever, or was it just me? 

Despite this, 2025 has been pretty great so far. The steps that I took at the end of last year to reduce my workload and commitments have been extremely effective – so effective, in fact, that I was initially unnerved by how quickly I completed my task list each day. It took a little while to get rid of the nagging feeling that I had missed something, and I had to get out of the habit of triple checking everything just in case.

The slower pace and more free time has allowed me to focus on the daily small steps I set myself on New Years Day. I have lost 10lbs, spent almost no money except for the essentials (more about this in a later blog post), decluttered a few areas around the house and dealt with any unexpected issues or problems as soon as they appeared. This initially also took a little bit of adjustment as a lot of it required me to not do something in order to reach a goal – not eating certain foods, not spending money on anything. It’s more difficult than it sounds.

Consequently, I feel better. My sleep patterns have improved, I haven’t had a headache or a tight chest since my first day back at work, and my anxiety levels have reduced dramatically. I have also started to feel more motivated to do things that I enjoy – blogging being at the top of the list – so I’m excited about getting back into it and already have a whole bunch of posts ready to go in my drafts.

It has also meant that I have been able to enjoy things more during periods of higher pressure. I’ve just got home after spending a few days in London, creating content for a client that has required me to communicate with LOTS of different people across multiple buildings. I always find this lots of fun, but I’m also usually exhausted because of the amount of time I spend being more extroverted than normal. This time, however, the only things that are tired are my feet from all the walking I have done. 

Once I had finished I also met two of my friends for lunch before I got back on the train. It’s rare that this happens as we live in different parts of the country, but as they were in the city at the same time it was a great opportunity to catch up over a Wagamama for a few hours. I have let my social life slide a lot over the last year – often being too exhausted and fed up to actually want to go out and see friends, but this was a reminder of how much I have missed it. 

And February looks set to be fun too. Bat Out of Hell (one of my favourite musicals) is back on tour so I already have tickets to see it twice while it is in Birmingham, and I’m extra excited about the fact that it has a lot of the same cast that were in the 2022 UK tour. One of the commitments I reduced at the end of last year was the theatre reviews – after five years and seeing hundreds of shows it had reached the point where we had 1. Seen the same shows on multiple occasions (I’ve seen Rocky Horror Show five times), and 2. I was struggling to fit it all in as my workload has increased, and while I will miss the incredible theatre team and the lovely people, I’m enjoying the extra time I have in the evening. I also have a ticket to see one of my childhood idols in concert (I booked the tickets a year ago), and I have a work event towards the end of the month that I’m looking forward to. 

A quiet, peaceful start to the year – long may it continue!