Like many young people these days I have a hard time not working, further compounded by my being self-employed. That doesn’t mean I don’t have downtime, but it’s all too often guiltily snatched when I hit the burnout stage, which in turn can spiral into days of unproductivity. Or I’m spending it scrolling mindlessly through social media when an afternoon suddenly turns up out of nowhere.

Today I'm bringing you another outfit wearing this gorgeous jacket from Free People. This would mark exactly the second time I've worn it after the outfit I posted here but I'm trying to find more ways to style it without it being too overwhelming. Until I can pair it with floaty summer dresses, though, I've gone for an all-black ensemble featuring my new Aquazzura boots that I got for Christmas.

Before last year every time January rolled around I would resolve to get fit and go to the gym more often. And every time I would be back to my usual lazy self come February, disheartened by the whole process. I've never been one for exercise; I loathed PE lessons at school, was the first to complain about walking somewhere and was always more inclined to curl up on the sofa with a good book (I mean who can blame me?)

Instead of individual reviews to go with this book video, I thought that it would be the perfect time to do a round-up of the best books I read this year. I'm so nitpicky with books these days that I figured it'd be a nice thing to point to those ones that I absolutely loved (or at least found intriguing) and would wholeheartedly recommend. It’s also that time of the year that I suspect a few more of us are curling up on the sofa to dip our noses into new worlds, so if you do need a little inspo this is for you.

Now I know you guys must not only be feeling overwhelmed by Black Friday sales (aren’t we all?) but also the influx of posts by your fave bloggers trying to round up the best of them, too. Well, I’m here to add to that influx - sorry!

It’s that time again when ASOS is running a 20% student discount, and I know that lots of you guys are students so I thought I’d put together a few of my fave picks from my fave brands. It’s so easy to forget the sheer range of brands that ASOS carry, meaning you can get lots of your wishlist pieces with a significant discount!

Today I'm back again to talk habits - good and bad. In this post back in March, I talked you guys through a few of the habits I'd been trying to make and break since the new year, and I thought it was high time for an update.

A few days after reading Sally Rooney's Normal People in one sitting and I'm still not quite sure what I think. In my heart of hearts, my instinct is that this is good writing doing a lot of work to cover up a rather hackneyed love story.

What's everyone's favourite genre? I don't think there are many people out there who would say ecofiction. The reason, of course, is time. With the exception of apocalypse novels maybe, you need at least decades if not longer to reveal the drama in nature, especially in plants, and even more particularly in trees.

I'm back to book reviewing and I couldn't be happier. If it's relevant (i.e. there are lots of twists and turns), within my reviews I'm going to do a couple of paragraphs with no spoilers that summarise how I feel about a book, and then for those who have read the book or just want my full thoughts, a second clearly marked spoiler section will also be available. That way I get to write proper reviews but also don't spoil anything for those of you who don't want to know!

It's finally time for me to do my final Master's post, this one all about my experience writing my dissertation. I did actually cover the whole process relatively closely in these videos, so if you're interested that might be a good place to start.

Finally I’m back on the blog with a chatty post! I thought it was only fitting that we start with one of these diary posts to help me gather my thoughts and reintroduce myself to the blog. Way, way back in March I wrote about some new habits I was trying to form and whilst I want to update you guys on how I’m getting on with those soon, I figured I’d give you a little roundup of my last few weeks/months first (where is time going?? How is it November? I’m confused).

It's time again to examine one of my bookshelves and write a few mini reviews. If you missed my last Shelf Tour, make sure you check out that post here. We're looking at classics again this time, either ones I haven't got in Penguin Classic form, or some more recent works. As I said in my previous post, I read many of these books years ago, and have probably completely forgotten their contents (so useful!), but we're going to plough on anyway. It's going to be a long one, so strap in.

It's been a while since I last wrote a blogpost, and it feels good to be back. I'm kicking things off with an outfit post, but I have a fair few longer chattier posts in the pipeline now that I’ve finished my Master's and got a lot more time on my hands! Let me know if there's anything specific you would like to see from me in the comments though.

The first proper workout I did this year I bottled it 11 minutes and 15 seconds in. I was doing interval training on the bike: high resistance, 10 seconds pushing as hard as I could, 20 seconds going slow and steady, just lightly pushing the pedals round. This is something I did fairly regularly during my gym attempts before, and I’d never felt like this; I got tunnel vision and I thought I was going to throw up.

Today I'm cracking out this gorgeous Free People jacket and I am loving it. It's such a statement piece and so beautifully fitted and structured, so to really make it shine I kept the base outfit super simple, wearing this cute little brami also from Free People and then some super ripped jeans to make it more casual.

This is something I threw together for a (very) casual night out and ended up liking it. The shoes and embroidered jeans make the look that touch smarter, but that doesn't mean you couldn't easily wear it at uni or in everyday life.

No matter how many times I look at these trousers, I'm still bowled over by them. I'm (unusually) loving the straight leg, the pop of blue, the way they add such a fun element to an otherwise relatively easy outfit (that old black tee/leather jacket/boot combination). 

I have a pretty fraught relationship with the concept of productivity. I have that socially inculcated feeling that each and every day of my life should be productive, and if it isn't that I've failed somehow. If it's an unproductive week, even month, this can compound into a seriously real mental health dip. I've been trying to fix this over the past few months (though its bloody hard to unlearn some of this stuff) and to realise you don't always have to be busy, or working.

Seeing as I did a post about my first semester that you guys can read here, I thought it only made sense to update you all on how I've got on since then. The general theme is much better, though when you're reading this I will be a few weeks into essay deadline madness, so I may be silently cursing my past self for being so positive.