20 for 2020: week 47
Week of 16 November 2020
Here’s my 20 for 2020 list.
What did I want to do better this week?
Keep working on the “replace phone use with movement” thing. That means instead of checking my phone at times when I’m between tasks or places, I get up and move instead.
So, how did that go then?
This week hasn’t probably been the best week for this because I’ve been working basically full time on coordinating papers and briefings for budget estimates week, which is next week, so I haven’t had a moment to sit down and catch my breath, much less check my phone. The good thing about this (if there is one) is that I am constantly on the go rather than sitting down all day.
Things will return to “normal” after next week so that will be the time I’ll need to start watching out for “just checks” of my phone. I did stop myself a couple of times during the week, and I think that’s the first step. Just being aware of doing it rather than mindlessly picking up the phone and scrolling through whatever feed I fancy at the time.
On to 20 for 2020
This week mostly taken up with work so I didn’t look at any of my 20 for 2020 things, other than my 50 mm challenge (thing 9). I’ve been carrying my camera around with me a lot more since I started it and looking for interesting things to photograph. I’m a bit behind on the editing but I haven’t missed a day of actually taking the photos.
I have a bit to catch up with on my photoblog, with those photos and also the photos and posts from the Open House Hobart weekend so that will be my focus over the next week or so once things calm down at work.
I finished the Bored and Brilliant challenge (thing 12) and you can read about it here.
What did I achieve this week?
My regular check in: I stayed up to date with my weekly photojournal (well, at least the journal side of it, the photo side not so much) and with the Hobart Street Corners project.
Kramstable and I signed up for the virtual Point to Pinnacle challenge, which started last Saturday. This year’s Point to Pinnacle was cancelled because of Covid. Kramstable had been looking forward to it because it would have been the first year he’d have been able to do the full event. Last year he was only allowed to do the 10km Point to Pub, as participants have to be 14 to do the Pinnacle event.
This challenge was designed to make up for not having the event in 2020, by challenging people to reach a total climb of 1271 metres over the week. It didn’t matter how you did it—presumably you could walk up and down an elevation of 10 metres 127 times over the week if you wanted to. The main issue we had with it was that it was all tracked on Strava, which neither of us had. So we had to sign up there and then manually put on all of our activity over the week. Which would have been fine if we’d remembered to track it in another app. Neither of us did.
Nonetheless, we had already decided that we could walk to the top of Mt Nelson to give our elevation stats a boost. We weren’t able to do it over the weekend because we had things on both days, so we decided to to it after school one day. I had previously walked up Nelson Road to the Signal Station and I remember it taking a while but not being too strenuous. A bit like the walk up the road to the kunanyi summit. However, it’s a very bendy, narrow road, with lots of cars and very little in the way of footpath infrastructure, so we decided to take the stairs up the side of the road.
I was aware of the stairs’ existence. They go up the side of the university. I’d never walked up them. I discovered there was a reason for that. It was a warm afternoon. For whatever reason, the hours after school that used to coincide with a walk up a beastly hill to pick up Kramstable when he was in primary school are the hottest and most uncomfortable hours of the day in Hobart and this day was no exception. Hot afternoon sun plus steep stairs do not equate to a pleasant afternoon stroll. Especially when greeted with a bunch of sweaty teen boys from the nearby school, which obviously uses the stairs as some sort of fitness torture for the students.
We complained about it. A lot. At one point I said to Kramstable if we got too uncomfortable we could stop and go back down. He didn’t disagree but suggested we get to the top of the section where we were and then reassess.
Once we got there, I could see the water tank that marks the end of the Nelson Road bends. That was not what I’d been expecting. The actual stair climb, although torturous, had been relatively short compared to walking up the bends. To say I was overjoyed that the torment was over was an understatement! When I told Kramstable that the worst bit was over and that the rest of the walk to the Signal Station, if we decided to go there, was going to be easy, he was as relieved as I was and agreed we’d finish the walk to the end of the road. I figured we hadn’t come all that way and undergone that much agony to not see the views at the end. So off we went and had a lovely afternoon walk, both agreeing that if either of us ever suggested we walk up those stairs again, the answer would be no.
We never ended up tracking the walk on Strava but our other app told us it was only a 400 metre climb, so we’d have had to have done it at least three more times to get to 1271 metres. That was never going to happen, so we left that challenge undone. Consider our entry fee a donation to making next year’s Point to Pinnacle happen.
What didn’t go so well?
I don’t think anything went particularly badly. I did feel sorry for the new guy at work who had to put up with me getting somewhat flustered at the work I was doing and telling myself to stay calm and to go through one document at a time.
What do I want to do better next week?
Let’s stick with the movement breaks instead of phone breaks thing.
Summary for the week
- Things completed this week: 1 (12)
- Things completed to date: 15 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21)
- Things I progressed: 1 (9)
- Things in progress I didn’t progress: 5 (7, 11, 13, 17, 22)
- Things not started: 1 (19)
- Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 6
- Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
- Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 0
- Days I shut my computer down before 10.15 (Goal = 7): 6
- Days I went for a walk in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 7
- Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 5 work days): 5
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