Week 47/2022: Moving again

Week of 21 November 2022

Three agapanthus buds against a wooden fence background
A lunchtime photo walk

Move by 3 p.m.

Getting back to posts about Laura Vanderkam’s book Tranquility by Tuesday, chapter 3 is called Move by 3 p.m. (Yes, I’ve skipped chapter 2. Because it’s complicated!) If you’re super observant, you might have noticed one of the habits I’ve recently started to track is exactly this.

The “rule” Laura suggests is simply to commit to doing at least ten minutes of some form of physical activity in the first half of every day. I’ve talked about the idea of “movement” vs exercise at length before and Laura says any sort of movement counts. It can be walking, running, chasing your kids, doing push-ups, dancing . . . Whatever. Just move.

I found this to be a good guideline-not-rule for me, as I’m not getting up early to go for a walk first thing in the morning. I’m still going out in the middle of the day most days, but not all, for about 20 minutes.

My understanding of the 3 p.m. part of the guideline is that, unless you get up early to exercise/move or do something like ride your bike to work or get off the bus 20 minutes away from your office (should you be so unfortunate as to work in an office), or have some other regular slot you stick to, chances are you might not move at all during the day.

The “before 3 p.m.” rule makes you take at least one proper break. This is when many people are feeling low in energy, so if you’ve got to that point in the day and haven’t moved at all, it’s a good time to get out and do that rather than trying to power through.

I find I generally don’t need to “enforce” this guideline because I already incorporate some form of movement into most days before 3 p.m. (or, occasionally, a planned activity after 3 p.m.). But for those days I don’t, it’s a good reminder to go out and walk.

Especially if I combine it with the bonus part of this guideline, which is to go outside for 20 minutes a day. This can be to walk or move in some other way, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be sitting in the park, meditating, watching the sun rise. Whatever you want. The idea is just to get outside—because it’s good for you.

Watch me try to get out of that one when it’s cold and rainy. Nevertheless, I think it’s a good habit to aim for.

22 for 2022 update

I didn’t have any goals for my 22 for 2022 things this week. I had a family commitment that took up most of Saturday and I was exhausted on Sunday because I haven’t been sleeping very well. So all I wanted to do was focus on getting up and moving every 30 minutes as recommended by every health professional I’ve been seeing.

I’ve got alarms in my calendar to get up and move every hour (which I was ignoring most of the time) and I found a cheap (free) app for my phone called Stand Up!, which I can set to annoy me every 30 minutes (or whatever time I choose) and it’s working for me. Sometimes. I’m doing better with this app than I was with anything else, so I think it’s just a matter of persisting and trying to turn it into something I do automatically.

22 for 2022 summary

  • Things completed to date: 9 (8, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22)
  • Things completed this week:
  • Things I worked on this week: 1 (21)
  • Things in progress: 7 (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 12, 21)
  • Things not started: 2 (14, 16)
  • Things I’m not going to do: 4 (4, 7, 9, 15)

What do I want to do next week?

I feel like the year is rapidly speeding to an end and I’m not going to finish many, if any, of the remaining things I wanted to do. I’m going to persist with the 30-minute breaks as well as trying to get back into the exercises the physio has given me for my shoulder. I’d been taking a break from those since I hurt my back, and it’s very obvious that I haven’t been doing them.

I also want to get back into my daily morning writing.

Weekly summary

What was the best thing about this week?

I went on a couple of lovely photo walks and I had fun playing round with some of the effects in the Silver FX plug-in that is part of the Nik Collection.

A white daisy on a black background in black & white
A black & white daisy

I also went to a wonderful baroque violin concert at the Town Hall on Tuesday, which was one of the Van Diemen’s Band’s lunchtime series. I’m not normally in town on Tuesday but I had a physio appointment, so I went to the concert after that.

What did I learn this week?

I learned what a baroque violin is. I had no idea such an instrument existed, or how it’s different from a modern violin. For example, it has no chin rest and it uses gut for strings rather than nylon.

What did I notice this week?

There are lots of agapanthus buds out now. So many photo opportunities.

What I’m reading this week

  • The Little Red Writing Book by Mark Tredinnick
  • Tranquility by Tuesday by Laura Vanderkam
  • Time of My Life by Myf Warhurst
  • This All Come Back Now: An anthology of First Nations speculative fiction edited by Mykaela Saunders

Habit tracker

  • Morning ritual (Goal = 7): 7
  • Move before 3 pm (Goal = 7): 7
  • Morning writing (Goal = 7): 3
  • The Little Red Writing Book exercises (Goal = 5): 0
  • Listened to writing podcasts (Goal = 2): 0
  • Controlled breathing (Goal = 7): 7
  • All six physiotherapy exercises (Goal = 7): 0
  • Mental health break outside during my work days in the office (1 day): 1
  • Finish work by 5.30 (Goal = 4): 4
  • Shut my computer down before 9.15 (Goal = 6): 6
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