Week 40/2021: a week off

Week 40/2021: Week of 4 October 2021

I didn’t have a focus area to do better in this week. It was week 2 of school holidays and I worked on Monday, then had the rest of the week off with Kramstable. I didn’t do much work on my 21 things at all and I made sure I stuck to my 9.30 pack up time so I’d be in bed as close to 10.00 as I could.

You may not be surprised to learn that my list of 21 things actually became 47 things . . . and number 23 was to shift my bedtime back to 10.00. So that’s going well even if I’m not making much progress on the main list.

I did some work on Kramstable’s video (thing 9) and my mother’s story (thing 8). What I actually did was to sort through a lot (600 or so) of old slides, some of which Mum had got scanned many years ago and some of which were in the box but had never been scanned. Her system of sorting was somewhat different to what mine would have been, so it took me a while to work out what I had, what I didn’t have and where everything fitted into the story.

Some of the photos I had to compare with my school photos to see what teeth I had missing so I could work out the year. It was a very time consuming process and there’s still some I have no idea when (or where) they were taken. Only a small number but enough to make me irritated!

21 for 2021 summary

• Things completed this week: 0
• Things completed to date: 4 (1, 11, 18, 20)
• Things I progressed: 2 (8, 9)
• Things in progress I didn’t progress: 10 (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17)
• Things not started: 5 (3, 12, 15, 19, 21)

What did I learn this week?

Lil Sis and I went on a tour of the Esmond Dorney House at Fort Nelson, which was run by Hobart Council’s Bush Adventures program. We’d been there a couple of times previously through the Open House Hobart program so this was an opportunity to be shown around from the Council’s perspective. I heard some stories I already knew about and learned some things about Esmond and the house that I hadn’t known, so it was a wonderful morning.

One of the highlights was seeing a whale frolicking in the river below us, which highlighted the amazing views that the house provides.

I’m really grateful that the Council is taking its responsibility for this property seriously and that it allows access for groups like this.

What was the best thing about this week?

Closing my work laptop on Monday afternoon, knowing I wouldn’t have to see it for the rest of the week. Also hanging out with Kramstable. Actually, that was the best thing!

What didn’t go so well / What do I want to do better next week?

I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with things at the moment, just little things that I end up doing bits and pieces of but never finishing. I’m not really sure what they all are at any one time, I just remember something and sit down to do it, then I think of something else that I have to do, which distracts me from what I’m doing. There’s photo courses, books to make notes from before I take them back to the library, journalling exercises, exercises from my writing class, photos to edit, transcripts from chats with my mum to sort through, meals to plan . . . I feel really scattered and unfocused and I can’t concentrate on anything for long because I’m always thinking of other things I need to be doing.

I think I need to sit down, make a list, and get the things out of my head. Then I need to work out what the most important thing is, the thing that will be of greatest benefit to me. And I need to do it, focusing on that one thing, and letting the other stuff go. I can, after all, only do one thing at a time. That also means clearing stuff off my desk so only the thing I’m doing is in front of me and I can’t see the book that needs to go back to the library, the papers I haven’t dealt with, the Change Journal, or the recipe books.

But right now, I have to finish this post. The list can wait.

What I’m reading this week

• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Habit tracker

• Days I went for a walk in the morning (Goal = 5): 7
• Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 1): 0
• Days I did my post-work pack up routine (Goal = 1): 0
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 3
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 0
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 1 work day): 1
• Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 5): 4
• Days I shut my computer down by 9.30 (Goal = 6): 7