Like a circle in a spiral
Jan. 2nd, 2015 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaVery slightly over a year ago, I wrote:
So, for 2014: evaluate life. Work out how to fit things in to it. Learn new stuff.
At the end of March, I wrote my first quarterly report on the resolution, which decided that progress was, frankly, not brilliant.
Then I didn't write any more quarterly reports, which may give you a clue how things went overall.
The summary points from the first quarterly report were that:
1. Swapping a 90 minute commute for a 45 minute commute is not the time-saver you might imagine. I used to get a lot of stuff done on the two 50-minute train journeys each day.
2. I was learning a lot of new stuff in the course of my new job, but entirely in an ad hoc as-I-needed-to way, rather than any sort of planned study.
3. I was at least writing more, even if it wasn't always high quality, on account of Writers' Triangle.
4. I was failing to fit in much exercise. I'd started yoga, but was a bit rubbish at it.
If I were to summarise the year, it'd probably be about the same.
I did start going to yoga classes before work, and stuck with them until I injured my thumb in October (Ashtanga yoga requires a lot of weight on your hands. I can now just about yog again, although it still hurts). Although I'm appalling at getting out of bed, and hate the idea of leaving the house around 6am, I have to concede that I do feel way better on days that have started with some yoga. I need to get back into the swing of it. I remain quite rubbish at it.
Writers' Triangle (a small circle where the other vertices are![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chrestomancy and lathany) remained the significant spur to writing - often in a hurry, with a lot of muttered cursing. I did produce some pretty awful dross over the summer, which the others had to suffer through, but I've produced some bits I was happy with as well. I should still work on writing more cheerful stories, though. My attempt to write a "nice" Christmas story saw confused expressions all around as people tried to work out who would die horribly, go mad, be eaten by a grue, etc (answer: no one! it was a nice Christmas story!)
I still feel at little at sea, technologically-speaking, in my not-so-new job. However, there are times when I do feel like I'm getting the hang of it. I've learned a lot of stuff, and still am. I probably would benefit from some serious sitting down and learning, rather than picking up enough to get by. That does require a lot of effort, though, as I struggle to learn programming stuff in an abstract sense - I'm much better at learning the bits I need to solve a concrete problem at hand.
(Actually, in the not-so-new job, I still feel rather at sea non-technologically-speaking. I've gone from being the normal-ish one in an office of geeky weirdos to being the weirdo in a pretty non-geeky office. But that's a separate issue, and much harder to address ;)
The biggie, though, is the lack of time and fitting things in. I've spent about the last six months in a constant flurry of worrying about the things I haven't done, forgetting the things I should have done, realising about that thing I should have done yesterday, apologising for those other three things I didn't do last week... etc. I feel as if I've had short days in short weeks, and have been busy almost continuously. By December I was struggling to get out of bed, ending up getting into work a little late - so leaving late - then either dashing somewhere, or going home to flop. Looking at my calendar suggests I wasn't actually all that busy, though. So it's obviously at least partly attitude and perception. I also have a weird muscular tic in one eye, which suggests that at least some part of me thinks it's stressed.
I think avoiding this situation is probably something that ought to be high up the list for fixing this year.
So, not a success overall, really.
Things to concentrate on this year:
I'm not quite clear how to solve the thing that was a problem all last year: never quite having time for anything. I think probably ensuring that I have at least one decent chunk of un-planned time per week is a good start. (Yup, I did just work out that Doing Less Stuff will lead to Having More Time. Genius, eh?)
Plus I need to get on with things in small chunks rather than trying to tackle everything at once. Tidying the flat is a mammoth task that clearly needs a weekend; doing fifteen minutes of tidying frequently would probably make at least an appreciable dent in it, though. Yes, I am familiar with the sound principles of UFYH, however my H remains F'd because I don't actually practice them.
In an ideal world, I'll get to bed sufficiently early that I'll wake up full of beans when the alarm goes off, leap out of bed, be on time for work, and leave with a decent amount of evening, which I will spend usefully (possibly grooming my unicorn and teaching my piglets barrel rolls).
I was given a wakey-up sunshine light for Christmas, which I am currently endeavouring to put all my faith in (if I believe in it, it'll work, right?) I also have membership of an online meditation/mindfulness program, which I should probably pick up again. I have a whole bunch of thoughts on mindfulness, but I'll save them for another day :)
Other than that, if anyone else has any useful suggestions for how to actually move this plan past the on-paper stage, I'd love to hear them. Some variation on this has basically been my problem for years.
On the subject of ongoing problems, the knee that's been a bit of a bother for years has become a lot of a bother. And the resulting strain on the good knee means that it's now complaining as well. My physio packed me off to hospital a month or so back; the hospital reckons there's very little to be done. My patello-femoral joint is suffering wear and tear, and that's just A Thing. It's exacerbated by my (I quote) "unusual biomechanics", and apparently I also have weak gluteal muscles. So, flat feet and a feeble bum :)
Since then I've been making an extra effort to do my physio exercises regularly. I'm also - mostly thanks to having injured myself out of yoga - currently heavier than I've ever been to the tune of about three-quarters of a stone. Which, while not much in the grand scheme of things, is probably not helping with the knees.
So, regular physio exercises, regular normal exercise, and lose a little bit of weight. Sounds like non-stop fun :)
Plus, of course, I have a minor resolution of drinking nothing but water in January to raise money for WaterAid.
So, for 2014: evaluate life. Work out how to fit things in to it. Learn new stuff.
At the end of March, I wrote my first quarterly report on the resolution, which decided that progress was, frankly, not brilliant.
Then I didn't write any more quarterly reports, which may give you a clue how things went overall.
The summary points from the first quarterly report were that:
1. Swapping a 90 minute commute for a 45 minute commute is not the time-saver you might imagine. I used to get a lot of stuff done on the two 50-minute train journeys each day.
2. I was learning a lot of new stuff in the course of my new job, but entirely in an ad hoc as-I-needed-to way, rather than any sort of planned study.
3. I was at least writing more, even if it wasn't always high quality, on account of Writers' Triangle.
4. I was failing to fit in much exercise. I'd started yoga, but was a bit rubbish at it.
If I were to summarise the year, it'd probably be about the same.
I did start going to yoga classes before work, and stuck with them until I injured my thumb in October (Ashtanga yoga requires a lot of weight on your hands. I can now just about yog again, although it still hurts). Although I'm appalling at getting out of bed, and hate the idea of leaving the house around 6am, I have to concede that I do feel way better on days that have started with some yoga. I need to get back into the swing of it. I remain quite rubbish at it.
Writers' Triangle (a small circle where the other vertices are
chrestomancy and lathany) remained the significant spur to writing - often in a hurry, with a lot of muttered cursing. I did produce some pretty awful dross over the summer, which the others had to suffer through, but I've produced some bits I was happy with as well. I should still work on writing more cheerful stories, though. My attempt to write a "nice" Christmas story saw confused expressions all around as people tried to work out who would die horribly, go mad, be eaten by a grue, etc (answer: no one! it was a nice Christmas story!)I still feel at little at sea, technologically-speaking, in my not-so-new job. However, there are times when I do feel like I'm getting the hang of it. I've learned a lot of stuff, and still am. I probably would benefit from some serious sitting down and learning, rather than picking up enough to get by. That does require a lot of effort, though, as I struggle to learn programming stuff in an abstract sense - I'm much better at learning the bits I need to solve a concrete problem at hand.
(Actually, in the not-so-new job, I still feel rather at sea non-technologically-speaking. I've gone from being the normal-ish one in an office of geeky weirdos to being the weirdo in a pretty non-geeky office. But that's a separate issue, and much harder to address ;)
The biggie, though, is the lack of time and fitting things in. I've spent about the last six months in a constant flurry of worrying about the things I haven't done, forgetting the things I should have done, realising about that thing I should have done yesterday, apologising for those other three things I didn't do last week... etc. I feel as if I've had short days in short weeks, and have been busy almost continuously. By December I was struggling to get out of bed, ending up getting into work a little late - so leaving late - then either dashing somewhere, or going home to flop. Looking at my calendar suggests I wasn't actually all that busy, though. So it's obviously at least partly attitude and perception. I also have a weird muscular tic in one eye, which suggests that at least some part of me thinks it's stressed.
I think avoiding this situation is probably something that ought to be high up the list for fixing this year.
So, not a success overall, really.
Things to concentrate on this year:
I'm not quite clear how to solve the thing that was a problem all last year: never quite having time for anything. I think probably ensuring that I have at least one decent chunk of un-planned time per week is a good start. (Yup, I did just work out that Doing Less Stuff will lead to Having More Time. Genius, eh?)
Plus I need to get on with things in small chunks rather than trying to tackle everything at once. Tidying the flat is a mammoth task that clearly needs a weekend; doing fifteen minutes of tidying frequently would probably make at least an appreciable dent in it, though. Yes, I am familiar with the sound principles of UFYH, however my H remains F'd because I don't actually practice them.
In an ideal world, I'll get to bed sufficiently early that I'll wake up full of beans when the alarm goes off, leap out of bed, be on time for work, and leave with a decent amount of evening, which I will spend usefully (possibly grooming my unicorn and teaching my piglets barrel rolls).
I was given a wakey-up sunshine light for Christmas, which I am currently endeavouring to put all my faith in (if I believe in it, it'll work, right?) I also have membership of an online meditation/mindfulness program, which I should probably pick up again. I have a whole bunch of thoughts on mindfulness, but I'll save them for another day :)
Other than that, if anyone else has any useful suggestions for how to actually move this plan past the on-paper stage, I'd love to hear them. Some variation on this has basically been my problem for years.
On the subject of ongoing problems, the knee that's been a bit of a bother for years has become a lot of a bother. And the resulting strain on the good knee means that it's now complaining as well. My physio packed me off to hospital a month or so back; the hospital reckons there's very little to be done. My patello-femoral joint is suffering wear and tear, and that's just A Thing. It's exacerbated by my (I quote) "unusual biomechanics", and apparently I also have weak gluteal muscles. So, flat feet and a feeble bum :)
Since then I've been making an extra effort to do my physio exercises regularly. I'm also - mostly thanks to having injured myself out of yoga - currently heavier than I've ever been to the tune of about three-quarters of a stone. Which, while not much in the grand scheme of things, is probably not helping with the knees.
So, regular physio exercises, regular normal exercise, and lose a little bit of weight. Sounds like non-stop fun :)
Plus, of course, I have a minor resolution of drinking nothing but water in January to raise money for WaterAid.
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no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 10:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 11:13 am (UTC)(Now I'm on a computer with a keyboard and my bookmarks!)
no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 11:25 am (UTC)Thanks! Not heard of that, will give it a try.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 10:29 am (UTC)It's liberating, yoga is great for being non-ageist. It's not how fabulous your body is - anyone can get good with enough practice. In the meantime, enjoy being hopeless! I did. :D
no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 11:35 am (UTC)Ooh, I definitely enjoy yoga, despite rubbishness. The class I go to doesn't seem to have many silver-haired old biddies, disappointingly. Not sure if this is because the time/venue (Soho, 6.30am) means it's more biased towards people on their way to work. Ashtanga seems to be popular with blokes, so the classes are less female-biased than I'm given to understand is often the case.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 08:35 pm (UTC)My ashtanga class is about 20% blokes though the yoga conditioning class was about half and half.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-04 06:00 pm (UTC)(Also, hooray to someone using 'yog' as the verb. I keep wanting to but had assumed it wouldn't be understood.)
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Date: 2015-01-03 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 11:29 am (UTC)I used to do a lot of Pilates years back, it helped but I didn't enjoy it very much. Also, I lucked out with the first instructor I had, and everyone else was a bit rubbish in comparison after that. Yoga I at least enjoy, and both the physio and the hospital specialist agree it's a good idea, so I think I'll stick with it.
Hope your first session went well!
no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 03:00 pm (UTC)I'm guilty of weekend marathons but do have some routines which must be done each day and which help.
1. Physio before anything; I need the physio routine to get me mobile and it gets done before showering, dressing, coffee or anything else or my day does not go well
2. Bed made, bathroom tidied, washing up done and kitchen surfaces cleaned before I leave the house each morning; no excuses, no exceptions
3. Once at work stop, go outside and walk several times a day.. 5, 10. or 15 minutes coffee mug in hand; it clears my head between tasks, helps me to focus and it's remarkable how often by the time I return I have the next email or course outline of bid section or whatever clear in my head and ready to go. Also workwise deal with emails as they come in and put tasks onto your electronic diary.. I set up a fake 8am-8-30 appointment and fill it with all the stuff I need to do that day.. as each task is done I go back and cross it through and transfer anything I didn't do to the next day's appointment; that way I don't forget or lose track of things.
4. Every evening choose a task and do it.... might be as simple as tidying one corner of a room or putting CDS and DVDS back in their cases... also either use the small vacuum or the carpet sweeper in all rooms at least once a day.
5. On Friday Evenings strip and remake the bed and get the bedlinen washed ; also change bath towels and get those washed too.. in summer they can go out on the line first thing the next morning; in winter they can get put on the airer in the spare room overnight ( I don't have a tumble dryer)
6. Washing up includes drying up and putting away; Laundry includes drying, ironing, folding and putting away.. there's nothing more depressing than a laundry mountain be it clean or dirty so small loads done frequently keeps it under control
no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 05:52 pm (UTC)Interesting to see someone else's routines, thank you for sharing! One of my besetting problems is lack of routine: a Friday evening might be in at home, out at a gig, traveling to a weekend away... Which makes it hard to stick to a this-happens-on-Fridays rule. Which is all resolvable with planning. I just don't (apparently) plan :)
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Date: 2015-01-03 06:11 pm (UTC)Routines are pretty good as long as they support you rather than rule you.. though the physio thing has to rule me because without it I can't walk very well if at all and that tends to be a bit of an issue :)
no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 05:48 pm (UTC)I used to label some days in my calendar NQNI, I should definitely restart that. It stands for "nice quiet night in".
no subject
Date: 2015-01-03 09:02 pm (UTC)I'm really enjoying Writers' Triangle so I'm glad it's working out (and I'm now finding I'm needing to write stuff regularly to have things to bring - I have half a chapter to go). Also, we're in for a dry January, so that might help a bit with weight loss and, in turn, the knee.
I've had past problems with the combination of lack of time and too much stress. I don't have a great solution to it - my own in the end was to cut out as much as possible and then to add things back in slowly. It worked for me, but that may be partly luck.
As for the light - could you let us know how it worked? I have issues with this time of year and would be interested in a solution.