Running on Caffeine: Life as a Student Nurse and Creator

If I’m honest, half the time I feel as though I’m absolutely smashing it.

The other half, I’m wondering whether I’ve consumed my entire personality in caffeine and am now operating purely on determination and vibes.

Welcome to my daily reality:

Student nurse. Mum. Bleepbook creator. Business owner. Professional plate-spinner.

Here is a little peek at what life looks like behind the scenes.

My Blood Type? Probably Flat White Positive

Some people begin their mornings with yoga, journalling and a peaceful skincare routine.

Me?

I start mine with the kettle judging me while I attempt to remember what day it is.

Before coffee: mildly confused gremlin.

After coffee: apparently functional adult with a timetable, several responsibilities and suspicious levels of optimism.

I don’t choose the caffeinated life.

The caffeinated life chooses me, usually before 8 am.

My To-Do List Has Its Own To-Do List

An average day may involve:

• Getting the children organised.
• Attending lectures.
• Going to placement.
• Completing university work.
• Researching clinical topics.
• Creating Bleepbook resources.
• Updating the website.
• Writing blog posts.
• Planning social content.
• Replying to the messages I definitely meant to answer three days ago.
• Walking upstairs and immediately forgetting why.

There is no perfectly polished routine.

There is only a very full schedule, determination and the occasional moment when everything comes together beautifully.

Some days, I am ahead of schedule and feeling unstoppable. Other days, I am hanging on by a single lanyard thread.

Somehow Two Steps Behind, But Still Moving

There always seems to be:

• One assignment to finish.
• One email to send.
• One resource to check.
• One product to upload.
• One snack I forgot to pack.
• One deadline approaching suspiciously quickly.
• One minor meltdown trying to book an appointment in my calendar.

But somehow, things still get done.

On time?

Sometimes.

Perfect?

Let’s not get carried away.

Finished, checked and moving forward?

Yes, and some days, that is the victory.

The Truth Behind Bleepbook

Bleepbook may look polished when you see a finished handbook, blog post or clinical resource.

What you do not see is me working on it:

• After a long day at university.
• Between placement shifts.
• While reheating the same coffee for the third time.
• With a child requesting a snack the moment I sit down.
• At midnight because one tiny idea suddenly became an entire new project.
• While checking a clinical claim for the fifth time because “probably accurate” is not good enough.

Every finished resource begins somewhere much less glamorous: scattered notes, too many open tabs and me saying:

“Right… let me just fix this one little thing.”

There is never only one little thing.

Why I Keep Creating

When life gets noisy, creating gives me somewhere to focus.

Bleepbook began as a way to translate complicated nursing information into something practical, visual and easier to understand. It has gradually become much more than a side project.

It is where my learning, creativity and slightly chaotic brain all meet.

If I struggle to understand something, I know another student probably does too. So I research it, break it down, check it properly and turn it into the resource I wish I had.

Knowing that something I created might help another student feel more prepared, less confused or a little more confident makes the late nights worth it.

🧠 The 47 Open Tabs Situation

My brain frequently feels like a browser with 47 tabs open:

• One has frozen.
• One is playing music.
• Twelve are nursing-related.
• Seven contain new Bleepbook ideas.
• Three are things I need to buy.
• One is an assignment I am pretending not to see.
• And I cannot find the tab responsible for reminding me why I entered the kitchen.

It is busy. It is occasionally ridiculous. But it is also full of ideas.

The challenge is learning that not every tab needs my attention at the same time.

What I’m Learning Along the Way

I am slowly learning that productivity is not the same as running myself into the ground.

Coffee can accompany the work, but it cannot replace food, water, sleep or an actual break. Rest is not something I need to earn by completing every task, because every task will never be complete.

There will always be another idea, another email and another job waiting.

• Some days are for building.
• Some days are for studying.
• Some days are for family.

And some days are for doing the essentials, closing the laptop and admitting that tomorrow is another day.

I am still practising that last one.

The Realisation

Yes, I’m tired sometimes. Yes, I drink a lot of coffee. Yes, my life occasionally resembles a group project in which every version of me forgot to communicate.

But I am also:

• Learning.
• Building.
• Growing.
• Raising little humans.
• Creating something meaningful.
• Turning difficult topics into useful resources.
• Continuing even when everything is not perfectly organised.

I may not have mastered balance as yet, but I am learning how to keep moving without losing sight of why I started.

And honestly? If this is what balancing nursing, family and Bleepbook looks like, I’ll take it.

Preferably with an extra shot.

Ginella x