🤧 I didn’t write last week because I caught a minor cold, it wasn’t bad, but I was feeling under the weather and just rested.
📺 I finished watching “Good Omens” Season 2. I enjoyed the ride, but the ending was a little bit disappointing. It’s kinda of a cliffhanger? Maybe the show could have ended before the last episode, because it seemed to me they could wrap up the whole Gabriel plot and call it a day, instead of adding Aziraphale’s decision to change his current situation.
🚗 The car winter tires are installed, let it snow, I’m ready! ❄️
⛸️ I’m making slow progress on my ice skating skills. I’ve been practising one-foot glides, and changing from one foot to the other. It’s way harder to glide on my right foot than on my left, which seems counterintuitive to me. I can’t do a crossover yet, but I’m working on it. Small steps.
📖 I’m indulging myself in this Fantasy romance novel called “From Blood and Ash” by Jennifer L. Armentrout. The plot is somewhat predictable, but I’m enjoying following the story through only one point of view. I just can’t put it down!
📆It’s been one month since I started using Cal Newport’s second edition Time Block Planner. It’s been great! I used it every day at work and I feel like it has greatly improved my work routines. I’m consistently doing the shutdown routine, and I’m loving my weekend now!
💉I got my Flu shot and the new COVID-19 vaccine. The only side effect was a sore arm.
These are some of the things that happened in my life this week:
📺 I finished watching the “One Piece” show on Netflix. I liked it! Great storytelling, I cried, and I smiled and I laughed.
📕Had a great discussion with my local Bookclub about the book “Babel” by R. F. Kuang. Some people didn’t finish, some people loved it, some people didn’t like it. I enjoyed it, even though it’s a sad book. It’s heartbreaking but beautiful.
⛸️ We started going to drop-in public skating sessions on Sundays, in addition to the skating classes. I realized how hard it is for me to do a forward crossover. I can't keep enough balance, and I don't seem to have enough strength to stay in a one legged position. I'll add some exercises to my routine like: squats, single Leg Deadlifts and Reverse Lunges to strengthen my muscles.
✅ I did complete a Work Weekly Review on Friday Oct 20th before heading out for the weekend!
🙂 Even though it rained the whole weekend, I enjoyed every minute of it. I wasn't anxious, I rested, I read, I did some puzzle, watched a show and even went ice skating. All of that on top of the usual chores (laundry, dishes, groceries, cooking, etc.). I haven't had such a great relaxing weekend in months.
These are some of the things that happened in my life this week:
☔ It was a rainy week around here, so I missed going out for some walks. Maximum temperatures around 12C.
✏️ I used the second edition of Cal Newport's Time Block Planner and I liked it! There's more space to write things in, and I particularly enjoyed the Planning page at the beginning of each week. The paper is super soft, nice to write on.
💪 I started going to the gym again because it's getting a little bit too cold for me to run outside. It's good to get back to some weight training as well.
🏝️ It's been 47 days without using Mastodon. I logged in again this week and unfollowed some accounts. But I didn't stay long. I don't feel I want to be back yet, so I will give it some more time. No rush.
📺 I started watching the One Piece show on Netflix. I only saw the first episode and I thought it was super fun!
⛸️ I started my Intermediate Ice Skating lessons this weekend! It was hard because there were lots of exercises going backwards, and I'm not ready to skate backwards too much, I get tired quickly (and I’m very slow…) It was good practice, tho. My goal is to finally learn how to do cross-overs this time.
These are some of the things that happened in my life this week:
📖 I've been reading the book “Babel” by R.F. Kuang for my upcoming local Book Club meetup. It's probably the first Dark Academia genre book I've read and although the theme is indeed dark, I'm enjoying it. It's a mixture of alternate history with fantasy and serious criticism of colonialism. It's very well written, using England's Oxford University in the 1800s as background.
✏️ I got back to my morning free writing session routine. I skipped it several days last week. In one of my sessions I realized how busy September has been and no wonder I was feeling frazzled and tired by the end of the month! Writing in the morning has a positive effect on my mental health, and so I'm definitely adding it to my morning routine ritual. I aim not to skip it for more than 2 consecutive days.
🚘 We now have a second car in the house, which was one of the reasons why I was feeling anxious last week (dealing with all the paperwork, insurance, etc). My partner now works in a site 30+ km away and there is no public transportation service over there. Carpooling would not work anymore: he leaves super early, I would miss my morning routine, and we would spend a lot of time commuting. We wanted a small and economical car, and we were lucky to find a Mitsubishi Mirage available at the dealership. So cute!
📕 I was curious to see the second edition of Cal Newport's Time Blocker, so I got a copy. I will start using it tomorrow. My current time blocker is very compact, and I was missing the extra space to re-plan my time blocks several times a day.
✅ I did a long work Weekly Review on the Friday before the long weekend (Thanksgiving in Canada) to avoid any worries about my work during the weekend. It worked! I could enjoy the weekend more fully: I spent lots of time reading in my favourite armchair, I also read on the couch with my partner as company (while he played “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”), I did some puzzle, listened to music and relaxed.
🚗 During the long weekend (aka as yesterday) we drove to Montreal to say hello to our best friends over there. The plan was to go for a hike at Parc Mont Royal, but it was a rainy, gloomy day, and we ended up walking around Place des Arts and then visited a retro gaming store that sells old consoles/games.
These are some of the things that happened in my life this week:
💼 I had a really busy and chaotic week at work. Everything was coming at me at the same time, and I struggled to keep my cool. I didn’t sleep well most nights. I had a meeting with my manager to talk about my workload, and we made a plan together on how to tackle everything. It helped a little bit, but things are still on my plate.
🎭 Because of the tiring week, I didn’t journal or read books as much as I wanted. I might have gone off the rails a little bit with my routines. I recalibrated on the weekend, so I hope this week will feel less overwhelming. I will get back to writing my GTDnotes series.
💻 This video explaining Free-Floating anxiety was super clear and gives a quick reset strategy. It seems like a shorter version of my Overwhelm First Aid Kit. The hardest part is to knowledge at the moment what’s going on and remember to go through the steps. And what helps me to recognize these moments is regular mindfulness practice.
🎧 I listened to Cal Newport’s podcast Ep. 265: Big Ideas for Deeper Living where he talks about 8 books about productivity and its main ideas. I think the only one I haven’t read is the “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferris. Great list!
These are some of the things that happened in my life this week:
📖I finished reading Driving the Deep (Finder Chronicles #2) by Suzanne Palmer. This was a page turner, and because of it I didn’t read anything else over the weekend because I had to get to the end (yeah, that kind of book 🙂).
📺I started watching Season 2 of “Wheel of Time”. Just got to the first episode, so far. I’ll probably go one episode a week.
🦷I finally went to the Dentist to get my permanent crown. It is such a relief to go back to chewing normally again! But I still haven’t tried popcorn.
👟I’ve been running 5K every time I go out for a run now. I want to get used to doing it with no pauses, and then build from there.
🐘It’s been almost a month since I stopped logging into Mastodon. I took a quick peek at it this weekend, and I didn’t feel I was ready to go back to using it. I will wait a little bit more, and I might have to do a major overhaul (like unfollowing accounts and hashtags).
💼It’s going to be a busy week at work, it seems that every construction project that was on hold are coming back in full force. October is going to be crazy as well with the rush to get things going before winter hits us. I probably won’t be writing on this blog so frequently because some days I will just be doing nothing for a while to recharge my batteries 🙃.
These are some of the things that happened to me this week:
📺I finally finished watching Seinfeld Season 9. I started early last year re-watching all the seasons, and now I’m done!
🏃♀️I completed a 5K on the Canada Army Run this weekend! And I actually broke my own record! The weather was perfect, not too cold, not too hot. I ran the whole 5K without resting, and I wasn’t feeling exhausted at the end. I think I can continue training and maybe run a 10K next year.
📖I’m continuing to re-read the “Getting Things Done” book by David Allen. It’s been interesting, I didn’t remember this book had that much information and detailed instructions. I’m enjoying revisiting the GTD ideas.
📚I finished reading the book Finder (Finder Chronicles #1) by Suzanne Palmer and had a fun discussion with my local Book Club. I enjoyed it so much that I continued reading the second in the series.
🧩We started another puzzle: “King of Dragons”. It’s a 1500-piece puzzle and the image is the head of a red dragon. The border is almost done.
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These are some of the things that happened to me this week:
I'm re-reading the “Getting Things Done” book by David Allen and taking notes. I'm not sure how long I'm going to take, but I'll be posting some notes to this blog! 📘
I’m almost done reading “Finder” by Suzanne Palmer. It’s my local Book Club pick for this month. 📗
I've been thinking about time blocking. I still haven't got a good habit on how often I check emails. I started thinking about all the time block categories I have and how to organize them better. I made a list! I thought about having a day or week template to have an overall idea of how my days are structured. Still a work in progress. ⏳
I finished the Magician's Study puzzle! I'll frame it and hang it in my home office. 🧩
I had to go to the dentist to repair a tooth, and I'm getting a crown. It's a tooth that had an old restoration on it and it cracked slightly. I have the temporary crown now, so I have to be careful with it. No popcorn or sticky foods for 2 weeks. 🦷
These are some of the things that happened to me this week:
Finished watching The Witcher Season 3 on Netflix. I liked it better than the previous season. There are lots of direct references from the books by Andrzej Sapkowski (mostly from “Time of Contempt” and the beginnings of “Baptism of Fire”). “Time of Contempt” is one of my favourite books in the series, so I was glad to see the Mages Conclave in Aretuza: it was a gorgeous episode! There are huge simplifications to the politics described in the books, but it was a decent adaption. 📺
I enrolled in the Army Run for a 5K in September! 🏃
I’m still enjoying the nice weather: I went out for my typical 7K run 4 times this week 💪.
Still reading: “The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World” by Max Fisher. I'm at around 36% now. Chapter 2 describes in detail how Facebook aimed to increase the number of friends users had (they wanted to surpass the Dunbar limit of 150) by enforcing it through changes in their algorithms. Chapter 3 discusses the Trump election and the rise of right-wing posts, videos and groups in social media. Chapters 4 and 5 covers the rise of machine learning algorithms and how all platforms started promoting and amplifying more outrageous/radical content. And how the average user's time on these platforms skyrocketed around 2016. 📖
I like the idea of week notes! So, I’ll start doing it in this blog. It’s a great way to practice gratitude and acknowledge accomplishments.
In this post I'll share some of the things that happened to me last week.
I started reading the book: “The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World” by Max Fisher. I’m only 10% in and it so far covered the Myanmar violent uprisings that were fuelled by Facebook’s content and the Gamergate hate campaign. Scary stuff! 📖
We finally got a sofa-bed for our living room. It fits our space perfectly and it’s very comfortable! It was worth the wait. 🛋
I started thinking about my relationship with email. I’ve noticed how email is a distraction when I’m trying to focus at work. I keep checking email all the time, even when I tell myself I’m in a focus time block. It’s something I want to work on. ✉
I went out for a run 4 times this week. I’m keeping with 7km total for each run, and 2 pauses of 2 minutes during the run. 👟
I enrolled in Ice Skating lessons that will start in October. Since the pandemic these classes were mostly cancelled, and now I was finally able to secure a spot! ⛸
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