20 for 2020: week 37

Week of 7 September 2020

My 20 for 2020 list.

Mr Ogilvie’s Covid outfit

What did I want to do better this week?
Following the training course I went on last week, I wanted to use some of the things I learned to streamline my weekly and daily planning and review processes.

So, how did that go then?
I find making myself sit down and do a weekly review really forced and I struggle with getting distracted and trying to do things that I identify during the process instead of adding them to the to-do list and focusing on just doing the review. This ends up making it take ages and is probably one of the reasons why I don’t like doing it. So I guess the goal is to be more disciplined, to know what I have to do and to do only that in the time I’ve set aside to do it.

On to 20 for 2020
On Monday afternoon, I got my mark for my assignment (thing 8) that I had submitted on Sunday. I am impressed with that for speedy turnaround. I wasn’t completely happy with the mark but the facilitator told me I had put too much in (who would have thought I could ever do that?!) and that what was supposed to be a proposal was starting to look like the beginning of the project.

Hmmmm.

On the positive side, it means I’ve done some of the work for the final report that I now don’t need to do again.

I finished reading this book this week.

What did I achieve this week? 
I’m still keeping up to date with my weekly photo journal and my street corners project.

Harrington Street Thursday morning

One of the ideas that I got from the training course I did a couple of weeks ago was making time to just think. Actually scheduling time to sit and think, and being comfortable with not doing anything, especially not checking your phone. It relates a bit to the Bored and Brilliant challenge (thing 12) that I started last year (and still haven’t finished).

The presenters suggested to find something you already do and add “thinking” in to that as a way of starting. So it could be exercising without music, or going to the coffee shop without your phone. I decided to make my morning walks tech-free as a way of starting this exercise. I reset my “morning walk” habit in my habit tracker to zero. I mean, tracking a habit that I have done every day for the past (I’ve forgotten how many) years and that I don’t skip on is a bit meaningless now. So the incentive to get back to 100 per cent will be a lot stronger now that it says zero, and having to go out without the phone will make me be more mindful about checking off the habit.

What didn’t go so well?
This packing up at 10.00 thing I want to do. I’m finding that now, because I’m working on my project most nights and doing what I used to do, which is turn off the computer, get ready for bed, read in bed and fall asleep, isn’t working for me now. Because I’m focusing on the project until the time I turn the computer off, I’m not giving my mind time to wind down so I’m finding it harder to fall asleep. Previously, when I was working on photos or journalling last thing before I turned the computer off, the part of my mind that wants to stay awake wasn’t being stimulated as much and I could quite easily fall asleep. So I think what I need to do is to set a time to stop work on the project and, even if I have the computer on, I need to be doing things that use a different part of my brain that help it wind down rather than keep it alert and focusing on the project.

That’s the theory anyway.

What do I want to do better next week?
What I just said!

A traffic light leaf

Summary for the week

• Things completed this week: 0
• Things completed to date: 12 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20)
• Things I progressed: 1 (8)
• Things in progress I didn’t progress: 5 (7, 11, 13, 17, 22)
• Things not started: 4 (9, 12, 19, 21)
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 2
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 0
• Days I was in bed by 10.30 (Goal = 7): 5