Author Archives: Kaitlyn White

Defining Busy: One Year Later

6th February 2013

If you haven’t been able to tell through my past posts, I’m a big fan of nostalgia. Stories, cards, photos, I keep them all. When I stumbled across Timehop a little over a year ago, I was instantly obsessed.

If you aren’t familiar with Timehop, this brillant little app takes your data from across your social networks and delivers it to you in a nice, neat little daily email sharing exactly what you were doing one year ago on that day. You can also download their app for extra love and see back as far as you have been active on a particular social network…posts from freshman year of college are AWESOME in case you weren’t aware.

As much as I LOVE Timehop, it’s not exactly the primary purpose of this post. So back to our regularly schedule programming we go.

A year ago, I posted this to Twitter: Definition of Busy

Working in a client-facing business means I’m constantly pulled in a billion different directions. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hoopla of it all and share with everyone just how busy you are as if there were some award for having the most miserable schedule. Believe me, I’m guilty too.

A year ago, I challenged myself to remove those words from my vocabulary, I even blogged about the ordeal and how it made a difference in my day.

There will always be a deadline, another project, or something else to check off of the list. It’s only going to get crazier from here – heck, I’m a single girl and I don’t have the responsibility of a cat in my apartment, let alone a husband and children. If I’m completely honest with myself, that future juggling scares me to death.

BUT …

At the end of the day, you are busy doing the things YOU want to. Only you can make the decisions for how you fill your days – that’s one of those great perks of being a grown-up. I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded by some awesome people who are constantly trying to remind me of that, as difficult as that can be somedays.

One year later, I’m still guilty of letting the b-word slip, but it’s a work in progress. Taking time to do things like sit, set goals and blog more are now also on my to-do list. I love this quote from Jessica Lawlor in a recent interview post for Rachel Esterline’s 13 in 2013 series:

The truth is, there is no such thing as work-life balance; there’s just balance.

I couldn’t have even thought to sum it better myself. How do you keep balance between the crazy?

Learning the Art of Doing Nothing

2nd February 2013

Doing Nothing This morning, I set out to run for my first weekend run in a few weeks. Lucky for me, it was also one of the coldest Saturday mornings we have had all season here (read 35 degrees, this is Atlanta, not Chicago). As I haven’t run more than four miles consistently in a few weeks, I headed out to the river for an easy six miles.

Keeping with my resolution to take things a little slower, I decided to simply enjoy the day and not focus on my pace or setting record distance. When I pulled in, I realized I had forgotten my headphones, meaning I really was forced did get to enjoy six miles in nature. The six miles surprisingly flew by, I felt great despite the cold and finished with an average pace much faster than expected. Win.

Efforts like this deserve rewards. Enter Land of a Thousand Hills. If you have not been to this hidden Atlanta gem of a coffee shop, you are most definitely missing out. Tucked away off of the Chattahoochee River within the Walton apartment complex, this little coffee shop not only makes fantastically crafted drinks, but also has a killer view. Land of a Thousand Hills

I love this spot as a post-run treat, but today was the first time I visited by my lonesome. Taking things slow is not a virtue of mine. I’m not quite whatsoever a master of “doing nothing”, as P seems to say to me once a week, “slow down turbo”.

Hot chocolate in hand {confession, I actually HATE coffee}, I spent the next hour literally enjoying the view {OK, I may have taken one Instagram and checked-in on Foursquare, but that was it, I swear}. Taking things slower certainly means moving in baby steps for me, but this was a perfect ending to a solo morning.Hot chocolate with a view

How do you spend your down time? How do you love to spend a day doing nothing?

Ways to make your week more awesome

30th January 2013

I stumbled across this video this week and couldn’t help but smile.


I’ve been in a bit of a rut this week myself, struggling to find the awesome in the days and keeping from just going through the mundane. It happens to all of us and it’s certainly nothing to be afraid of, but how do you make every day awesome with a to-do list a mile long? I sat down to think about just that and to get myself out of my boring mood. Here’s where I landed:

  • Share something nice. You never know how someone else started their day and your compliment could make the difference. Plus it just feels good
  • Challenge yourself to do one little thing different each day: take the stairs, run a new route, stay OFF of Facebook for a day. Switch it up and keep things interesting
  • Say hello to the person next to you in the elevator. It’s not awkward, and if it is, it will make you laugh in no more than 45 seconds
  • Go a whole weekend without wearing make-up or blowdrying your hair. You can’t imagine how refreshing it is. {And yes, you can actually leave the house looking like that. Seriously, no one worth your time is judging you}
  • Treat a friend to dinner or drinks, without telling them. Yes, your salary is small, but the next part is payback. Make that overdue “we should hang out again soon” actually happen in less than three months. Surprise + delight + more time in the future with the people you love, how could that be better?
  • Call someone. On a phone. There is nothing better than a catch up phone date with your BFF from high school / your brother / your Godmother. Trust me, it’s the highlight of my week, every week.

What else would you add to the list? How to you brighten an otherwise ordinary day?