These are some of the things that happened in my life lately:
⛸️Ice Skating lessons started again this weekend. I liked the new instructor who gave a variety of fundamental exercises to build balance. She explains things in a clear way and gives lots of encouragement. I skated backwards with more confidence than I’ve ever had before.
🧘♀️Almost halfway through the 30 Day Yoga Journey with Yoga with Adrienne. I’ve been doing it every morning.
✅I’ve been testing out MS To Do for my projects list and next actions. After my GTD year-end review in December, I feel like I want to simplify my system and use less apps. At work I will have to migrate to Microsoft apps anyway. I’ve always liked MS To Do aesthetics, it’s simple and elegant.
🔀Another realization: I like to have separate lists for work and personal stuff. So I have 2 weekly reviews now: one at work on Friday afternoon and my personal review at home on Sunday morning. I’m feeling less stressed over the weekends, and they feel like mini-vacations now!
🌳We had 30cm of snow this weekend and the trails were gorgeous. It started to look more like winter again. I love going for a walk after a snowstorm. There were people walking, biking, skiing, snowshoeing. Perfect conditions for those wintery activities!
These are some of the things that happened in my life lately:
⛸️Getting back to ice skating after the holiday break: I went to the rink yesterday and after half an hour skating I was already feeling exhausted, so I took it slow. My balance feels a little bit better, I tried some wobbly forward crossovers going counter-clockwise. I still can't even start a clockwise crossover, it's like my brain doesn't understand the movement.
❄️ After a green Christmas, we finally got some snow this weekend! It's been a warm winter and it seems the Rideau Canal skateway won't open this year because it's not cold enough to form the required 30cm ice thickness.
🧘♀️I'm doing the 30 Day Yoga Journey with Yoga with Adrienne. Every year she releases this challenge in January and I've been doing it for a couple of years now. I love it! It has become my start of the year tradition.
📖I've been thinking about my readers goals for 2024, and I will write a post about it soon. The trend will continue to be more fun and lighthearted books.
✒️I've decided to stick with Standard Notes for my private journaling this year. Last year I went between back and forth Standard Notes and the Journey app. The Journey app has been going through various updates, and they will insert A.I. as one of the features. They say it's safe and encrypted, but I don't feel comfortable with it. I've been enjoying the new Super Editor in Standard Notes.
These are some of the things that happened in my life lately:
⛸️ Ice Skating lessons are over for this year, but I enrolled for the next sessions in January. For now, I'll keep on hitting the drop-in public skating sessions on Sundays in our neighbourhood ice rink.
💪 I didn't go to the gym too much in the past 2 weeks. Both me and my partner caught a cold, and we didn't want to spread whatever it was. And also, we weren't feeling our best anyway. But we've been feeling well for the past few days.
🏝️ I took 3 days off work last week to recharge. I basically spent the days reading, playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey and just relaxing at home. It was great! I still have some vacation days that I will use between Christmas and the New Year. I will be away from work from Dec 20th until Jan 1st. Yay!
📖 I finished reading this urban fantasy book for my Book Club this week (“White Trash Warlock” by David R. Slayton). It was a light read, but I wasn't too invested in it. I picked up the second book of the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi now.
🎉 We went to our work Holiday Party this Saturday. It was the first time in months that I stayed up late (went to bed at around 1am) and I felt like a zombie the next day. Not to mention the “introvert hangover” I usually get after big social events: extreme exhaustion. I just needed some quiet time to recover. I still managed to complete the minimum house chores (like cooking my meals for the week, doing laundry and groceries shopping) but I basically took naps the whole day. I tried to read, but I would easily fall asleep. I had fun at the party, but it always comes with the downside of needing a full day to unwind from an intense socializing experience.
🌲 We went hiking on Saturday morning in a pleasant cloudy -4C day. Then the weather warmed up (reaching the high 6C), and we ended up getting rain over the Sunday. I've never seen rain in December like this!
These are some of the things that happened in my life lately:
⛸️ I’m making slow but steady progress in my ice skating skills. I’ve been practising forward crossovers going counterclockwise. I can’t do it going clockwise yet: doing anything where I support all my weight on my right leg is super hard! I got a pair of knee pads to use while I’m skating, and they are great! I fell yesterday on an exercise to practice how to use outside edges, and I didn’t feel a thing. I should have gotten them earlier, I feel a little bit more confident and less afraid of falling now.
💪 I changed my gym exercises a little bit to focus more on leg strength. And that’s been helping me with ice skating. Although ice skating is a lot about balance, having legs and glutes strength helps a lot to maintain balance and to be able to push myself. I’ve been focusing on squats, one leg deadlifts, lunges and curtsy squats.
🎮 It’s been a while since I played any video games. It’s something I’ve been planning on getting into again. So I finally started a game of one of my favourite series: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. It’s great because I can play with a female character! I don’t remember having that option in any of the previous games of the series.
📖 I finished reading Fourth Wing by #1Rebecca Yarros and I really enjoyed it. Then I started reading A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout, the second book of the Blood and Ash series. I found out that these books are being listed as “Romantasy” aka “Romantic Fantasy” genre. I’m into that vibe right now.
📅 I had another very busy week at work, in which we were closing a very big job. I can say that Time Blocking was an excellent way to manage my stress and organize myself through chaos. Also, keeping up with my morning and shutdown routines was crucial for me to survive the past two weeks. I’m looking forward to getting a couple of days off this week.
🌲 Temperatures are dropping around here, keeping in the low single digits (in Celsius). Most all the leaves have fallen, and I went out for a couple of lovely hikes.
⛸️ I've made some progress in ice skating: I did my first forward crossovers while practising in a circle! I can only do it going counterclockwise, and it's awkward and wobbly, but it's progress!
📖 I finished reading this romance fantasy book that had some plot twists that got me by surprise. I was expecting a typical “enemies to lovers” romance trope plot, but it actually had some surprising elements I was not expecting. And even the ending was not what I usually see in these books, it's a complicated relationship, and it got me curious to read the second book in the series. The first book is “From Blood and Ash” by Jennifer L. Armentrout.
🥳 I discovered that Nirvana now accepts all types of emojis. I can put emojis on the project titles, next actions and labels. Some months ago, only the black and white Unicode Symbols would show properly, and I used some for my contexts list. But now emojis are working!
😃 My neighbourhood community started building our outdoor ice rink. It's not ready yet, but I'm looking forward to going skating there when it's ready.
🤧 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!
Winter hiking scenery