This week was all about staying creatively productive in the dead of winter—aka February, when all I want to do is stay cozy indoors and rot. I’m taking you through a full work week as a self-employed small business owner and content creator (and yes, I’m also in my second trimester with my first pregnancy, so my routine and priorities are definitely shifting). I start the week with a slower Monday—matcha is spiritual, light computer work, Notion planning, and then I intentionally stop “career work” around 3–4pm to do other productive life stuff like laundry, learning about pregnancy, and thinking through maternity leave. As the week goes on, it’s a mix of packing orders from my Monica’s Collective self-care collection launch, shipping goals (I really try for 3–5 business day processing), and thrifting for both life and business—props for seasonal product photos, coffee table books, and a jacket that actually fits my growing belly. Midweek is more hands-on and creative: I restock scrunchies, talk honestly about mental health and comments, and lean into thrifting-as-retail-therapy (only if it’s thrifted, always). Then I take myself to my favorite coffee shop for a laptop work session and finally knock out a long-overdue project: drafting new, more “elite” packaging designs. I end the week with content creation, plus a cozy craft project using my wedding dress scraps—because special fabric is wasted if it just sits in a bin.