Beck Wadworth is the Founder and Creative Director of minimal stationary brand An Organised Life. Born from a desire to bring structure and organisation into busy lives, the brand is driven by function and style, and has cultivated a following that includes the likes of Lara Worthington, Eleanor Pendleton and Natalie Marie Fitch. Beck shares her tips for setting goals, curating an inspiring workspace and refocusing on the year ahead.
Hi Beck, Can you tell us about yourself and why you started An Organised Life?
I’m the Founder and Creative Director of stationery company An Organised Life. I’m from Marlborough, NZ and currently reside in Auckland, NZ.
I always relied on a diary year after year to write down my important dates, lists and goals. I studied Graphic Design for 4 years at Massey University in Auckland and started working in the fashion industry there before transferring to Sydney in my early 20’s. When I moved to Sydney I wanted a diary, however, I couldn’t find one that was functional yet had an element of style to compliment my monochrome and minimalistic aesthetic. I realised there was a gap in the market and this was when An Organised Life was born. From there I designed my first diary, found a printer and bookbinder, produced just 300 diaries and started on my marketing and PR plan. They sold out in 3 weeks and there was no turning back after that!
Describe your workspace; how have you curated a space that inspires creativity?
I created my workspaces (both my home office in Auckland and the An Organised Life HQ in Sydney) to be functional yet inspiring spaces to work. I stuck to my signature aesthetic of being minimal and monochromatic and added as many functional elements as possible to ensure the spaces enhanced productivity.
Natural light is extremely important to me when it comes to creating my dream workspaces and I love to add texture and tones for warmth, rather than lots of colour.
What are your must-have desk essentials, and why?
My An Organised Life Daily Planner, A4 Weekly or Monthly notepad, a Lined Vegan Leather notebook, water glass and carafe, laptop, candle and music.
With the end of the financial year drawing nearer, many of us are looking to reset and plan for the upcoming year. What are your top tips for setting goals?
Mid-year is a great time to reflect, review and refocus your goals and plans for the upcoming year. My tips:
REFOCUS:
Split your goals into three main categories - personal, professional and financial. Where do you want to be and what do you want to achieve across these three categories by the end of 2021, or over the next 12 months?
BE SPECIFIC:
It sounds simple, but it's very important to make sure your goals are very specific and also realistic. Try not to make them vague. Things to consider: what exactly are you hoping to achieve? When do you want to achieve this by?
Note: Make sure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely).
IDENTIFY THE POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS:
I’m not going to lie, when you set a goal, 99% of the time it won't be smooth sailing the whole way, but this is a positive as it makes us stronger and is part of the challenge of a goal. Get ahead by identifying the potential roadblocks that could lie ahead for each goal and what you could do to overcome this. My tip is always knowing the best and worst case scenario.
WRITE AN ACTION PLAN:
Once you have a clear understanding and vision on how you can realistically achieve your goal/s, put an action plan in place with small milestones you can tick off weekly or monthly in your diary (if you have an An Organised Life diary - there is a thorough Goal Planning section you can use). If you have a pin board, print or write out your goals and smaller tasks as a to-do list where you can see it, visualise and manifest. Otherwise reflect back to your diary weekly to remind yourself what your goals are.
How do you create time to reflect and refocus?
It’s important to prioritise down time. If you don’t, it can quite often lead to burn out. Over the last 12 months, I’ve made it a personal goal of mine to focus on slowing down. At first, I really had to reset my mindset, and found scheduling it into my to-do list helpful. For example, 7am - 8am walk and reflection or 6pm onwards: dinner, sleep tea, journaling. I also focused my journaling on mantras and small goals each week that included down time too, for example be present with loved ones, take time to breathe, etc.
What can we expect from AOL in the coming months?
We have a lot happening as a brand at the moment. We have just launched our beautiful new chocolate brown and A4 notebooks and we also have an amazing new artist collaboration launching at the end of this month. Our 2022 Collection that launches in mid August has some beautiful new additions too.
