21 for 2021: another thing done

Week 20/2021: Week of 17 May 2021

What did I want to do better this week?

Afternoon exercise. 

So, how did that go then?

. . . . . . . . .

21 for 2021 update

This week I did some more work on my resume (thing 18). I think I’m happy with it now, as I don’t have any need for it in job applications right now, so I’m calling it done. I’ve made six-monthly appointments with myself to review it as part of a regular catchup with myself to check in on how I’m going with all things work. How super organised is that?!

This is an idea I got from Katherine at People Flourishing, who has been a wonderful help to me in the past with my resume and applying for jobs.

I also did some work on my websites and blogs (thing 13). I’m trying to make them more consistent in terms of style and with the stories I tell about myself. 

I didn’t start a new chapter of the Change Journal but I’m still working on Habits (Chapter 7), Clarity (Chapter 8) and Pitch Yourself (Chapter 9).

Vegetable of the week

Thing 2 is to choose a different vegetable every week from the book In Praise of Veg and make a recipe from the book using that vegetable. 

I cooked Alice’s “Blend and Snap” Celery Soup (page 418) this week. Any recipe that talks about Elle Woods is already a winner in my book and this proved to be the case in practice.

One thing I love about this is that there’s no pre-cooking prep needed. You just cut up celery, leek and some herbs, blend the lot with some stock and put it on to cook. Blending everything with my stick blender was the most intensive part of this cook. Otherwise it was all pretty easy and I had time to make a side dish of zucchini fritters. (This was easier than it sounds. It was grated zucchini mixed with eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg, and fried.)

Celery soup garnish

I think what made this soup was the garnish, which is made up of the chopped celery heart, cranberries and pine nuts. Without it, the soup would have been nice but not super tasty (perhaps not having had the celery salt the recipe called for contributed to this), but the addition of this crunchy, tart extra, really lifted it and put it firmly on the “will make again” list.

It tasted better than it looked

Regular projects

There are several things on my list that I have made a regular commitment to doing in the hope that this will be more likely to make me do them. I worked on these ones this week.

• Thing 5: Spend an hour a week working through my annoying undone things list. One hour on Saturday morning. I’ve been reading my friend’s book so I can give it back to her. The funny thing about this is that she asked if she could have it back for a few days if I hadn’t finished it so she could use it in something she was writing. I said I’d take it in for her because I was dipping in and out of it and still had a long way to go, so that she could get what she needed from it and then give it back so I could finish it. Our catchup got postponed, and later in the week she messaged me to tell me she had just received a late birthday present from a family member, which was. . . .  the same book. So there is now no rush at all for me to finish it now. 
• Thing 8: Spend an hour a week working on Kramstable’s videos. One hour on Sunday afternoon. I’ve almost finished the first one I wanted to get done this year. I asked Kramstable to quality check it for me. He picked up a couple of errors so I’ll fix them next week and hopefully this one will be done and I can move onto the next one.
• Thing 9: Write my mother’s life story. I went to see my mum but we had to spend most of the time going through some government forms and I didn’t get a chance to ask her any more questions. Not to worry, I still have a lot of notes to write up. One of the things I’m doing in my spare time is an online course about research skills, which is primarily about field interviews, but I’m finding a lot of helpful advice in there about getting information in other contexts such as meetings and even chats with my mum. One of the things they strongly recommend is to take time after your interview and document as much as you can in the words of the person you just spoke to. I haven’t been doing this either with Mum or at work, so I’m going to build that in to any future meetings. 
• Thing 17: Brainsparker gym*. This week I worked on Module 6. This module is about obtaining information from people, so it fits really well with the material in the research course, including things like active listening and observing the person you’re talking to.

21 for 2021 summary

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

One of this week’s photos from my Hobart Street Corners project

When did I listen and what did I learn this week?

Over the last two weeks, I have been working through the book Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad. This is difficult, confronting work but it’s necessary. I’m learning a lot and I’m facing a lot of things that I need to address within myself. 

What was the best thing this week?

I skipped my yoga class this week and went to Kramstable’s debate.I don’t usually go because yoga is on at the same time but this week I wanted to see him speak. When we got there, we found that the opposing team had forfeited so there was going to be no debate. The adjudicator said that he was happy to step in as the negative team and debate the kids single handedly, then a couple of parents said they’d like to debate as well, so it was on. 

It was interesting to see how much more relaxed the kids were with their speeches when there was no “competition” pressure. Thanks to one of the parents, I now know there is less chance of getting a blood clot from the covid vaccination than there is of getting attacked by a shark on a plane. I never quite found out if this was an airborne plane or one that had crashed into the sea. 

I got the casting vote as to which team had won, so I called it for the kids and everyone was happy. 

An afternoon walk

What I’m reading this week

• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
• Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit
• gulp! The seven day crash course to master fear and break through any challenge by Gabriella Goddard
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Habit tracker

• Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 5): 5
• Days I did my post-work pack up routine(Goal = 5):
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 4
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 6
• Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 6
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 5 work days): 5
• Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 3
• Days I shut my computer down before 10.15 (Goal = 7): 4

21 for 2021: week 18

Week 18/2021: week of 4 May 2021

21 for 2021 update

This week in the Change Journal I tried out the Eisenhower Principle chapter, which I am familiar with but don’t think I’ve ever actually used. It’s a way of prioritising things according to their importance and their urgency. I’ve seen it used to organise things in a long term way as well as to prioritise things on a daily basis. (James Clear has a good explanation of it.)

One of the ideas it promotes is to try and focus most of your time working on things that are important but not urgent, so that you work on them before they get to the urgent stage and you start to panic. However, we also know that many things that crop up on a day to day basis might be urgent but they aren’t really that important in the long term. And there a lot of things we might do that aren’t urgent or particularly important, such as excessive social media scrolling, which we (by which I mean I) spend way too much time on when we’d be better using your time on things that are important. 

Chapter 6 lays out an Eisenhower matrix for each day of the week so you can have a go at prioritising your tasks each day according to their importance and urgency.

I had limited success with this as a daily planning exercise and I think it would work better for long-term planning. I see it more as a way of identifying the things I want to be prioritising and the things I would be better off limiting, and then developing my daily to-do list from that and giving it a way of identifying the top priority things (a la the Circle technique). Something like that anyway. Because, for example, I’m not going to put “check twitter” in the not urgent/not important box of a daily list, but it is something that in a long-term big picture view would go in there.

I’m sure that makes no sense. So I’m calling that chapter done. 

I did some work on my resume (thing 18) this week. Due to a recent reorganisation in my team this week, I started a new job this week, which is going to give me some new challenges and, I hope, more of an opportunity to use my strengths and skills. As a result of that, I’m not sure I need to apply for a new job this year, so I’m taking that part of thing 18 off. I’m only going to apply for a new job if something irresistible comes up. I’ve been putting off saying my resume is finished because there are a couple of statements in there that I’m being overly picky about wording and it‘s holding the whole thing up.

I think I just need to do it and be done with it. It’s not like anyone is going to see it right now. 

Vegetable of the week

Thing 2 is to choose a different vegetable every week from the book In Praise of Veg and make a recipe from the book using that vegetable.

This week I cooked with fennel, which is anther vegetable I don’t think I’d cooked with before. The recipe was called Fennel Cacciatore with Free-form Polenta Dumplings (page 72), and it’s Alice’s twist on chicken cacciatore. It’s another simple dish, which involves browning the fennel pieces mixing in some olives and garlic, then cooking with tomatoes for about 45 minutes. Alice says you can add chicken if you like or, as I did, cut up some pork and fennel sausages, cook them and add to the sauce.  

The recipe also calls for what she calls free-form polenta dumplings on top, which I found a little bit dry, and I imagine you could also serve it with a creamy potato mash.

This was another for the “will make again” list.

Regular projects

There are several things on my 21 for 2021 list that I have made a regular commitment to doing in the hope that this will be more likely to make me do them. I worked on these ones this week.

• Thing 5: Spend an hour a week working through my annoying undone things list. How about ten minutes reading one of the books on that list?
• Thing 8: Spend an hour a week working on Kramstable’s videos. I spent a couple of hours on one of these videos on Sunday afternoon.
• Thing 9: Write my mother’s life story. I went to see my mum on Thursday and talked some more about her school days. 
• Thing 17: Brainsparker gym*. This week, I completed Module 5. I was supposed to attend the live workout on Thursday morning but I managed to mix the time zones up and tune in an hour after the actual start time. That was 3 am, and there was no way I would have got up for that! I only managed to get up at 4 because I woke up then anyway. But I missed it, and went for a very early walk instead.

Ursula enjoying the wet weather this week

21 for 2021 week 18 summary

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

Blast from the past

Following on from my 10-year review of my blog, here’s the final flashback to my favourite posts from 2011. This one is from 17 December 2011: The unchristmas tree. Coming up to midwinter (okay, that’s a few weeks away . . .), it’s a good one to finish this series with.

I think that means I probably should have finished sorting out my websites to coincide with the 10-year blogiversary (thing 13) but I haven’t. It’s a small matter of getting some words right. (See above comment on my resume.)

What I’m reading this week

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Dæmon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling by Philip Pullman
• Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit

Habit tracker

• Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 5): 5
• Days I did my post-work pack up routine (Goal = 5): 5
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 2
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 6
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 5 work days): 5
• Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 1 (er . . . )
• Days I shut my computer down before 10.15 (Goal = 7): 7

What do I want to do better next week?

See that number one next to the number of days I did some physical activity in the afternoon . . . ? That.

21 for 2021: week 17 update

Week 17/2021: week of 26 April 2021

I  had a lovely day out with my sister and her friend at Mt Field National Park on Saturday, which was great because I could forget all about my to-do list and concentrate on  not rolling my injured ankle clambering over large rocks on the Tarn Shelf. Did I succeed? No, I did not. But I can still walk, so I don’t think I did too much damage.

I still have a tonne of photos to sort through, so here are just a couple of them.

21 for 2021 update

This week in the Change Journal I worked on chapter 5, Digital Detox.

I don’t know that I learned that much from the exercise other than that on a bad day, if I was on social media and email and watching TV as much as I was that day every day of the year, I’d spend the equivalent of 43 days a year doing that.

43 days!!!!

Actually, this is a bit misleading, because I don’t normally watch TV and I have been lately because I watch Masterchef with Kramstable, and I check the Twitter feed about the show on my phone at the same time, so a lot of the time I counted as being on social media was double counted as TV time as well. If I hadn’t been watching TV, I might not have been on the phone either.

 The idea of the chapter is to track your usage over the first four days of the week, to track your non-usage over the last three days and then work out how much time you’d save over a year by not going on the phone. I found that difficult, to actually track the times I thought about picking up my phone but didn’t do it, especially as I was out and away from the journal for most of the time so didn’t have any way to record near-misses. I sort of get what it was trying to do but it didn’t work for me. 

I know what my main triggers for wasting time on the phone are. They are being in between tasks, not being sure what I should be doing or not really having anything to do. I know that on days I have a lot to do and I just sit down and do it, I spend a lot less time on the phone. 

So I found this chapter more of a reinforcement of what I already knew, rather than something new.

Also, I completed 66 days of the habit of doing the pre-work routine (thing 20), which is part of chapter 7, so that thing is done. I’m also working through the journalling chapter (chapter 24).

I did some more work on my resume (thing 18)

Vegetable of the week

Thing 2 is to choose a different vegetable every week from the book In Praise of Veg and make a recipe from the book using that vegetable.

 This week’s dish was Carefree Cabbage Curry (page 456). I’m not a huge fan of cabbage. In fact, I reckon it’s up there with Brussels sprouts and we already know what I think of them. However, Alice says, “Often, when cabbage gets braised, it is shredded, grated or chopped in some way where you lose the beauty of its folds and undulations. Here, the rich golden marinade and equally shimmering gravy only serves to emphasise the grandeur of this brilliant Brassica.”

Wow! What a description. It’s a love letter to cabbage, right? Writing like that is almost enough to turn the most ardent cabbage hater. 

Almost.

For this dish, you cut cabbage into wedges, marinate it and then cook it in what is a very tasty curry sauce. (Note to self: you have run out of Kashmiri chilli.) It’s actually nice.

Marinating cabbage. It’s a thing.

There, I said it. There is a cabbage dish I liked.

I think having the cabbage as such a big chunk bulks it up a bit so you don’t feel like you’re missing out by not having any meat in it. I can imagine I’d make this again. 

I even had nigella seeds already

Regular projects

There are several things on my list that I have made a regular commitment to doing in the hope that this will be more likely to make me do them. I worked on these ones this week.

• Thing 5: Spend an hour a week working through my annoying undone things list. One hour on Saturday morning. I didn’t do this on Satirday as I was out but I did read a bit from one of the books that’s on the list during the week.
• Thing 8: Spend an hour a week working on Kramstable’s videos. I worked on this for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon.
• Thing 9: Write my mother’s life story. I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to my mum this week, but I got her to identify some people in some old photos
• Thing 17: Brainsparker gym*. I finished lesson 3 of Module 5.

21 for 2021 summary

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

Blast from the past

Following on from my 10-year review of my blog, here’s another one of my favourite posts from 2011. This one is from 11 November 2011: eleven, which is about how I spent 11/11/11. Sick on the couch at home, it turned out.

I took a photo every hour that day for the 11Eleven project, which seems to have now disappeared. I don’t know if the book ever happened but I’m pretty sure none of my photos would have made it in!

When did I listen and what did I learn this week?

I went to a webinar on age discrimination in the workplace, which I found very interesting. One of the panelists asked why we have this constant fixation on chronological age, and said that focusing on age to categorise older workers is deficient and limiting. I found Kay Patterson, the Age Discrimination Commissioner, a real inspiration at age 76. This is all going to be relevant to my work in the coming months so it was a useful and thought provoking session for me.

I was also interested to see Hobart Council’s Crowther Reinterpretation Project in Franklin Square. This project provides local artists with the opportunity to respond to the statue of William Crowther, a public figure in mid-19th century Hobart.

The first project is called “Truth Telling” by Allan Mansell, and it considers Crowther’s treatment of Aboriginal man William Lanne (King Billy) after Lanne’s death, including decapitating his body.

There will be four temporary artworks involving the stature over the rest of 2021. While I was aware of Aboriginal people’s bodies having been desecrated in the name of white people’s “science”, I didn’t know about William Lanne’s particular story, and I think this project is a good opportunity to, as the project description says, “acknowledge, question, provoke discussion or increase awareness about the story of Crowther and Lanne”. These are important stories that we need to learn about.

What was the best thing about this week?

The Tarn Shelf walk.

What I’m reading this week

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Dæmon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling by Philip Pullman
• Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit

Habit tracker

• Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 4): 4
• Days I did my post-work pack up routine(Goal = 4): 4
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 4
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 5
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 4 work days): 4
• Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 5
• Days I shut my computer down before 10.15 (Goal = 7): 7

21 for 2021: week 5

Week 5/2021: Week of 1 February

21 for 2021 update

This week was a weird week. I had Monday and Tuesday off work before school went back on Wednesday, two days back in the office and then a day working at home. I’ve been doing some of my workmate’s job while she’s been on leave since before Christmas and I’m so glad she’ll be back next week and have her job back! There’s a whole bunch of reasons I’ve struggled with this and I’ve been doing some more reading and reflecting on myself that has made it quite clear to me why I’m not happy doing it. 

So, it’s been an interesting time of learning and thinking and seeking clarity.

I got straight back into the pre-work routine (thing 20) when I went back to work on Wednesday. It’s one of the habits I’m working on through the Change Journal (thing 4).

Vegetable of the week

Thing 2 is to choose a different vegetable every week from the book In Praise of Veg and make a recipe from the book using that vegetable.

 This week I made Gajar Makhani – Indian Style Butter Carrot (page 140), which was pretty easy. It would have been better if I’d not burned it though. I think I’ll make that one again. 

Gajar Makhani ingredients

The finished dish

I also made one of the ginger recipes, Lau’s Vegetables wits with Fresh Ginger (page 104) but I didn’t do the “fizzy ginger” topping so I might try that one again too.

So many greens

Regular projects

There are several things on my list that I’ve made a regular commitment to doing in the hope that this will be more likely to make me do them. This is not necessarily so. I’m very good at making commitments to myself and then when the time comes, deciding I want to do something else. It’s something I want to work on.

I listened to a podcast from Personality Hacker on Monday that talked about exactly this subject and said that, despite the struggle, a schedule is the best way to get things done. It suggested creating “anchor events” that you absolutely have to get done and then working your other things around that. It also suggested that you have to find a rhythm and time for things that works for you – because just by putting things on a calendar doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily do them. So if something doesn’t work at one time, you keep trying it at different times until you find a time that does. It’s something I’m going to have a go at over the next few weeks.

Here are the regular projects I worked on this week.

• Thing 5: Spend an hour a week working through my annoying undone things list. I got the blood tests my doctor ordered back in November and sorted out one of the many piles of crap I need to get rid of.
• Thing 8: Spend an hour a week working on Kramstable’s videos. I worked on one of the videos.  
• Thing 9: Write my mother’s life story. I visit my Mum every Thursday to chat to her about her life and add to what I know so I can write this story. This week I learned that my father used to drive a green Commodore. I wonder when he made the shift from Holden to Datsun. 
• Thing 17: Brainsparker gym*. I did the third and fourth class of the second module this week to complete that module. One of the interesting things I learned relates back to some of the other stuff I’ve been doing else where about disrupting your thinking and getting exposed to new ideas and experiences. Without going into a bunch of stuff about personality theory, what I think I’ve discovered is the thing that’s actually keeping me stuck. I think I’ve figured out the element of my personality that wants stay in my comfort zone of the known and of routines, even though I feel like it is causing the slow, withering death of my soul to do that. It all stems from letting the 10-year-old into the front of the car instead of keeping it in the back where it belongs. At least it’s a possibility.

21 for 2021 summary

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

What I’m reading this week

• Braving the Wilderness: The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone by Brene Brown
• The Queen of My Self by Donna Henes
• The INTP Quest by A J Drenth
• A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future: David Attenborough
• Love in the City by Jen Morris

Habit tracker

• Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 3): 3
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 2
• Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 7
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 3 work days): 3
• Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 6
• Days I shut my computer down before 10.15 (Goal = 7): 7

20 for 2020: week 49

Week of 30 November 2020

My 20 for 2020 list.

What did I want to do better this week?
I wanted to track how many times I mindlessly picked up my phone and scrolled through stuff for no reason.

So, how did that go then?
I forgot.

On to 20 for 2020
I’ve been focusing on my 50 mm photo project (thing 9) this week. I got a bit behind in editing so I spent some time catching up with that.

Day 34 of the 50 in 50 project

What did I achieve this week?
My regular check in: I did my weekly photojournal and worked on my Hobart Street Corners project.

Apart from that it’s been a pretty slow week. Last week I was talking to someone about Christmas trees and I said I hadn’t put mine up last year until a couple of days before Christmas and had assumed no one was interested. Then Kramstable asked why we hadn’t put up the tree and it was done in very rapid time. The very day after that conversation, he asked when we were putting it up. So we did that together.

Oh Christmas Tree . . .

As you can see, I put a lot of effort into it.

I went to the optometrist during the week to get all of my scripts reviewed. This resulted in me needing new computer glasses, new normal glasses (my current pair is over six years old), and handing over a lot of money. It was one of those times when I didn’t realise how much I needed new glasses until I saw what a difference a tweak to the script would make.

What didn’t go so well?
I’ve just learned about a new way to plan my work days, which may or may not be helpful for me. It involves sticky notes. I’m going to try it over the next couple of months and see if it helps me.

The idea is to follow the routine exactly as written for two months to implant it in your brain so that it becomes a habit. I did it for one day and it felt awkward and forced and I didn’t do it the next day. I’ll blame being really late for work the second day because I was at the optometrist and I’ll try again next week.

What do I want to do better next week?
Force the morning planning ritual.

Summary for the week

• Things completed this week: 0
• 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 did the morning planning ritual (Goal = 5): 1
• 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): 7
• Days I went for a walk in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 3
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 5 work days): 5

20 for 2020: week 45

Week of 2 November 2020

My 20 for 2020 list.

What did I want to do better this week?
Learn to identify early warning signs of becoming distressed in overwhelming situations and removing myself instead of trying to push through because I “have to” stay somewhere.

So, how did that go then?
This week was much better at work. The noise wasn’t as bad and I made sure I used my noise-cancelling headphones when I needed them. I did my required two days in the office and worked from home the other three days.

I’ve also been doing some reading about managing myself in over-stimulating environments and know I need to make sure that I don’t force myself to stay in situations that I can’t cope with. This is up to me to manage. No one is going to look out for me and the noise isn’t going to stop just because I’m uncomfortable. I have to be more proactive and assertive, which doesn’t come easily for me and can sometimes make me just as anxious as the issue that’s causing my distress in the first place. It’s a bit of a vicious circle!

On to 20 for 2020
This week I focused on my 50mm lens challenge (thing 9). I’m finding this really fun and challenging in a good way. It’s forcing me to look at potential subjects differently to how I otherwise would and to pay a lot more attention to the camera settings and to what I include in the frame than I do when I wander round with my wide-angle lens.

50 in 50 Day 7: Beach tree in the afternoon light

It’s been really interesting so far. It’s made me have to think a lot more about what’s in and what’s out. And get really annoyed when I have to step back further to fit something in and bump into a wall behind me!

50 in 50: One that didn’t make the cut

I’m updating my photoblog with the photos if you want to check them out.

I finally got around to reading what to do with the sprout jar (thing 21) and putting some seeds in it. It’s only taken ten months. More actually, as I got the jar some time in the middle of last year. I found myself confused by the conflicting instructions on the seed packet and the ones that came with the jar. Seriously? That’s what put me off doing it for this long? Just try it and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, the worst outcome would be that I’d lose a few seeds.

It is underway.

What was so hard about that?

What did I achieve this week?
My regular check in: I’m keeping up to date with my street corners project and my weekly photojournal. I even printed a big backlog of collages this week, so I need to make time to cut them to size and stick them in the diary. I ordered next year’s diaries last week so I’m expecting them to arrive well in time for next year’s work.

I also decided to take part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which is a challenge that has been running for more than 20 years, participants set themselves the goal of writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I’ve taken part in this three or four times and have reached the 50,000 word target only once. I wasn’t going to do it this year but there is a story I really want to write (I actually started it last year and didn’t complete it) and I keep putting it off, so this seemed like as good a time as any to pick it up. I decided to be more realistic and set myself a goal of writing 500 words a day or 15,000 words over the month, rather than the full 50,000. I just want to try and get the words flowing and not overwhelm myself when I’m in a very busy time at work and working on the 50mm challenge, which is my top priority for this month. So this is something I want to keep ticking over rather than it being a huge thing.

As of Sunday (day 8), I had 5054 words, so I’m on track.

What didn’t go so well?
It’s now been almost three weeks since I handed in my final uni assignment (thing 8) , which is about the timeframe I should be getting my result in. Sometimes the marks have been sent out in less than two weeks, so this week I found myself constantly checking my email for the message that would tell me my final mark. As a result, I’d get distracted by other emails a lot more than I normally would. Emails are bad!

I’m confident I’ve done enough to pass, but I just want to know for sure! I want the loop to be closed so I can put this behind me once and for all. I know it will come when it comes and I can’t control this, and that checking my email won’t make it come any quicker.

I mentioned Habitica a few weeks ago. It’s a habit tracker app that you can use to gamify your habits and you lose health everytime you do something you’ve set up to be “bad”. One of my habits I want to kick is checking Instagram when I’m supposed to be working, and I noticed a couple of times this week, I picked up my phone and went to that app without even consciously thinking about it, so my cute little avatar took a bit of a health hit this week. I do not want to be doing that automatically. So that’s something else to be working on.

What do I want to do better next week?
Put the phone down!

I went back to my physio this week. I hadn’t been for about six weeks, and I told him how the joint in my neck that has been causing me problems had improved significantly after a week’s break away from the computer. He said it’s because I’d been moving a lot more during the day when I was on holiday, and I’d been changing positions more when I wasn’t sitting down all day, and I needed to get more movement of that joint into my day if I want to see that improvement continue. Or at least not get worse. Looks like something else I need to do better next week

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: 2 (9, 21)
• Things in progress I didn’t progress: 6 (7, 8, 11, 13, 17, 22)
• Things not started: 2 (12, 19)
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 7
• 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): 7
• 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

20 for 2020: week 44

Week of 26 October 2020

My 20 for 2020 list.

What did I want to do better this week?
Be calm and enjoy my break. Not go back to work on Thursday and get agitated as soon as I walk in the door.

So, how did that go then?
I didn’t get agitated until Friday. Friday’s not normally a day I’d go into the office, but the promise of road workers in my street all day made the office look like a more appealing prospect. It just happened to be the day someone from the building site next door started a concrete cutting job right outside my window.

It was not pleasant and I didn’t handle it well at all, after an unusually stressful start to the morning.

I did enjoy my break though.

On to 20 for 2020
I sat down last Sunday to review what’s left to do in my list and work out what I can get done in the rest of the year.

Things I’ve started:

• 7. Complete the Photoshop class I signed up for in 2019
• 8. Successfully complete my uni course
• 11. Set up a mini studio at home
• 13. Read the book Indistractable and do the activities it recommends (at work and home)
• 17. Learn to use my graphics tablet
• 22. Commit to (and actually do) a monthly review

Things I haven’t started:

• 9. Use no camera other than my SLR with a single prime lens for 30 days and post a photo a day for the month
• 12. Finish the Bored and Brilliant challenge and write a blog post about it
• 19. Take a class in fermentation
• 21. Use the sprout jar

Obviously I can tick off the uni course (8) as soon as I get my final result, and there’s nothing more I can actually do towards that. I’m assuming (hoping?) I’ve been successful. I’d be shattered if I fell over on the last assignment and hadn’t finished the course.

The monthly review (22) is something I can’t finish until the last Sunday of the year but I’ve done those reviews every month so far.

Bored and Brilliant (12) and the sprout jar (21) are easy and I can do them in less than an afternoon. I just need to make time to do them.

I’ve made some enquiries about a fermentation class (19) but the one I wanted to do earlier in the year (and had booked into) was cancelled because of Covid. So I’m not sure if there will be something I can actually do before the end of the year. That one’s beyond my control.

The Photoshop class (7) is something that I’ve twisted and turned throughout the year and I now have five online courses to do, plus two photography courses all waiting for me to finish my uni course. I also have a book of basic Photoshop tutorials to work through. I think I’m going to work through that first briefly to make sure I have a handle on the tools and techniques that are used in the classes, so I don’t have to keep going back and trying to find out how to do things. I’m going to use my tablet (17) as part of this work so that should cover off this thing too.

I’ve changed the prime lens month (9) slightly. I’m going to spend 50 days (not a month like I had planned) with my 50 mm prime lens on my camera and make a photo every day. You can read more about that on my photoblog. I’ve decided not to use the DSLR exclusively for the 50 days so that I can continue to do my Hobart street corners project and a couple of other things that I’m documenting on my phone. But other than that, the 50 mm lens is it.

Day 1 of my 50 in 50 project

I flipped through Indistractable (13) during the week and started to make a list of the techniques I want to try, most of which I think I’m already doing but I want to go through it again and make sure I’ve got everything out of it before I call this thing done.

I think that’s everything except the studio (11). I technically have already set up the studio. The backdrops are there and Kramstable is using them. He’s also pinched one of my lights. Ha. I just need to work out how to use it for the photos I want to take. What lenses to use and where to put the camera and where to put the lights. And whether I need the flash off camera. Etc.

What did I achieve this week?
My regular check in: I was a little behind on my weekly photojournal photos because (a) I was on holiday so didn’t have access to my photos for half the week and (b) , because I was on holiday, I had way more photos to work through than I would have in a normal week. I enjoy the challenge of making the weekly collages because it forces me to focus on a small number of photos, usually around ten to 16, that document the entire week, rather than (in this case) try and process several hundred photos at once. But I caught it all up by the end of Sunday so it’s back on track.

My Hobart street corners project is up to date.

Apart from those two regular things, I achieved going on holiday and taking lots of photos, and starting my 50 mm challenge.

What didn’t go so well?
I don’t think anything didn’t not go well, apart from the entire day on Friday, when everything was too loud and too bright and I felt completely overstimulated and didn’t behave very well as a result.

What do I want to do better next week?
I guess learning to identify early warning signs of becoming distressed in circumstances like Friday’s and removing myself from situations instead of trying to push through because I “have to” stay somewhere.

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: 3 (9, 13, 22)
• Things in progress I didn’t progress: 4 (7, 8, 11, 17)
• Things not started: 3 (12, 19, 21)
• Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 7
• 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): 7
• Days I went for a walk in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 6
• Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 5 work days): 5

20 for 2020: week 38

Week of 14 September 2020

My 20 for 2020 list. Shiny new shoes

What did I want to do better this week?
Set myself a stop time for my uni work to give myself some wind down time before I start to get ready for bed.

So, how did that go then?
I didn’t work as intensely on the uni project this week so I wasn’t doing it all evening and I didn’t really need to do it this week. But it’s something to keep in mind for when things start to get a bit more hectic. I have four weeks before the project has to be completed and I have to hand in the report.

I’m also struggling to make picking out my “big rocks” for the week that I talked about last week and making time to do them during my weekly planning session. (“Planning session” sounds a whole lot more efficient that it actually is, by the ways.) I think because it’s new, it feels forced and awkward. I’m hoping if I make myself do it it will start to feel more normal and I’ll get used to doing it.

On to 20 for 2020
This week was all about uni (thing 8). My project, which is what my final assignment will be about, is now fully underway. The publicity is out there and people are starting to contact me about taking part. I’m not getting as much interest as I’d hoped for but I am getting people who I don’t actually know contacting me about it, which is cool. What I need to do is focus my energy now on putting together as much background as I can so that will all be written before my consultations get into full swing and I can then spend the last couple of weeks writing those up rather than fretting about the desktop research.Stephen Walker sculpture at Long Beach

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

I wrote some briefing notes for my manager about something that I’m supposed to be working on but right now have very little idea about, so somehow managed to pull that together to make sense. I also sat in on a (virtual) meeting that she wasn’t able to attend and made some notes that she said were “very helpful”, thus demonstrating my ability to listen to conversations about things I know very little about and extract the key issues.

What didn’t go so well?
I think the weekly planning, scheduling focus time blocks and the packing up fall into this heading. I don’t think there’s anything else that I particularly struggled with.  That’s enough!

What do I want to do better next week?
I went to my physio on Friday with a couple of really niggling sore points. I’ve completely lost the habit of going on a walk in the afternoon after work and I’m not sure if the two are entirely unrelated. The physio suggested, among other things, that I need to move more, sit less and drink more water. So next week I want to focus on getting back into that walking habit. Along with better planning of my weeks and my days that includes a firm pack up and shut down time.

Curvy concrete

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): 6
• 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): 6

20 for 2020: week 34

My 20 for 2020 list.

Monday beach walk

What did I want to do better this week?

• Go to bed on time.
• Plan my days and stick to the plan. This will be really important over the next two months as I complete my uni work.
• Abandon the idea of 15 minutes creative time every day and find two time blocks within the week when I can work on my creative projects.

So, how did that go then?

It went well! I was in bed no later than 10.32 every night. I think I need to start packing up slightly earlier that I have been though, so I don’t find myself jumping in to bed at 10.30 and getting changed into my PJs in bed just so I’m in bed before the clock ticks over. (Yes, I really did that one night.) That is really lengthening the bow. Even five minutes earlier would be enough.

I have been doing a lot better at planning my day and sticking to the plan. At least for the first half of the day. By the end of the day I’m getting tired and am less likely to do it. But I’ve made progress.

And I feel a lot less guilty for not doing 15 minutes of my art every day now that I’ve decided to stop trying to do that. I achieved my goal of doing two longer sessions during the week and together they added up to a lot more than the hour and three quarters I would have done if I’d just stuck to the 15 minutes (that I wasn’t doing anyway).

Friday waterfront walk

On to 20 for 2020

I picked up the book Indistractable (thing 13) again this week and had a flick through to see where I was up to.

“Up to” implies I’ve been systematically working through it and doing everything it says. I haven’t. I’ve randomly implemented ideas that I think will work for me rather than try to religiously stick to doing everything in the book chapter by chapter. Some of the chapters aren’t relevant to the situation I’m in and some of the things I’m already doing.

This is especially true for work now that I work from home four days a week. A lot of the interruptions I used to get just don’t happen any more and we don’t have as many meetings as we used to.

One of the things that has been causing me issues though is work email. I manage a shared email box that gets a lot of requests for information from other areas, often at short notice. Most of the requests are things I have to send to other people rather than being able to deal with myself, which means a lot of things on my task list require me to wait for someone else rather than being able to do them myself. I’m not good at waiting. If something’s an open loop like that, I like to close it as quickly as possible, so I struggle with sending stuff out and not knowing when I will get a response. I get quite anxious and unable to settle to focus on other things because I’m always thinking about what’s in the emails.

I know this is something I do to myself and I’ve been working with my manager and colleagues to find ways to manage this better. One of the things I’ve started doing, which is partly based on chapter 15 of the book, is to actually schedule blocks time for checking emails and dealing with them so that the emails don’t leak through my entire day. This means I can also schedule larger blocks of time during the day to work on my projects undistracted, knowing that I will get to the emails at regular times.

So far, it’s working well.

Farewell to the Parliament Square crane

I had a win on my uni project (thing 8). I had submitted my draft proposal to my facilitator last week without knowing if I had any support from work to do it. This week, I met with the relevant senior manager to talk about it and she gave me the green light to go ahead as long as I can do it in a way that addresses the concerns that she identified. (She actually talked to her boss about it before she spoke to me. I won’t be sneaking this one in under the radar. It is Out There now.) She’s going to work with me to help me develop a project that meets the needs of the program, is of value to the workplace and is doable in eight weeks. As a former graduate of the program, she understands what’s needed and I think she will be a good sponsor for the project.

I got feedback on my draft proposal from the unit facilitator on Monday. She raised some issues I’ll need to address in my final proposal, which is due at the end of next week. We have the face to face workshop next week for four days, so I have a lot of reading to do over the weekend to prepare for that. I’m expecting my life to be fully engrossed in this work for the next two months.

The best thing is that, after 12 months of study, the end is in sight! I’m still trying to get my head around how I’m going to transform the concept for the project I had in my head at the start of the program into a 3000 word report in two months, but I keep reminding myself that I don’t have to know all the answers now, I just have to keep taking the next step and I will get there.

I spoke to the sewing machine people (thing 2) and ordered my new machine. It should come next week.

What did I achieve?

I overcame the voice in my head that told me I wasn’t good enough to do something and did it anyway.

What didn’t go so well?

Being organised enough in the evening to be able to pack up without rushing.

What do I want to do better next week?

Focus on sticking to my 10.30 bed time, I want to start packing up with enough time to actually be in bed before 10.30 rather than leaving myself less than ten minutes and rushing to get into the bedroom while the clock still says 10.30.

Continue to stick to my day plans and try to be more consistent in the afternoon. Maybe I need to take a proper break in the middle of the day to give myself time to regroup and refocus. I’ll try that.

The week’s reading. Highly recommended.

Summary for the week

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

20 for 2020: week 28

Week of 6 July

My 20 for 2020 list.

I had been looking forward to this week for a long time. After the chaos of last week at work and spending the entire weekend working on my uni assignment (thing 8) that I had handed in with the mantra “it doesn’t have to be perfect; you just need to pass” playing off against “you should have put more work into this” in my head, I was ready for a break.

If I hadn’t had a holiday booked, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if ”should-me” had requested an extension on Friday to give me more time to finesse the assignment. Thankfully, I did have plans and what I handed in on Sunday was it. I’m glad, because it forced me to submit something that I think is good enough but is by no means up to the standard I expect.

Ha! Take that, “should-me”.

This week’s destination was Bridport, a small town on the north coast of Tasmania. I believe I went there once when I was a baby, and there is some family folklore story about me having been kidnapped by “Uncle Charlie”, who I think was my grandmother’s aunt’s husband. The actual truth is far less dramatic. From what I understand, Uncle Charlie simply decided to take the baby (me) out for a walk and didn’t bother to tell anyone, and they all went into a bit of a panic when no one could find us. I must have been returned safe and sound because I’m still here.

Chasing clouds in the middle of nowhere

I have no memories of the place, so it was all new to me and I was happy to not have any particular plans in mind other than wanting to visit Mt William National Park, on the north-eastern tip of the state, and take lots of photos. I certainly did that.

I got a bit obsessed with the old pier

It was great to get away. I let myself sleep in and I missed my morning walks and mindfulness sessions (goodbye, 100-day streak). I didn’t do any reading and I didn’t do my daily yoga stretches. I made sure I got right back into all of that when I got home though. I’ve put too much work into these habits to let them go after a couple of days off.

I also made up for skipping my daily 15 minutes of creating the past few weeks on Saturday, when I sat down for four or five hours and edited a bunch of photos from the trip.

Obligatory lighthouse photo (larapuna/Eddystone Point)

As for my 20 for 2020 things, I didn’t do much at all.

Uni doesn’t start again until next month so that’s on hold for a couple of weeks.

I had a look at what I wrote in my monthly review (thing 22) last week and pulled out the main things I said I wanted to work on in July.  One of those is to figure out how to take the focus that I know I have when something is important enough and time critical (aka my assignment) and apply that to things that are still important but perhaps there isn’t as much riding on.

I think I need to revisit Indistractable (thing 13).

Catching up on the week at the local coffee shop

I used my graphics tablet for some of my editing (thing 17). Well, I used it for five minutes until Photoshop crashed. Does that count as progress? Yes, yes it does.

I took the photos that were the reason for setting up the home studio (thing 11) but I didn’t do any more to work out how to set that up, so I won’t count that.

Overall, it was a nice relaxing week, and I really needed the break. Back to work next week while Kramstable has another week of holidays. Lucky him!

I felt a bit Famous Five traipsing about in the marshes

Summary for the week

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