A very productive day as I prepare for a weekend in the mountains of Tennessee and 12 hours of incredible Contra dancing on Saturday. I will be wearing a kilt for the first time in more than a year. Part of the weekend's adventures include dong some car camping and I worked most of the day cleaning the garage and gathering and organizing items for the weekend adventure.
With me being on the road, my daily posts will change somewhat. Internet access where I will staying is sporadic, and my tablet is not happy with the connection there. However, I will be posting "dispatches" to the blog throughout the day via email and, if possible, I will condense them to the regular "The Daily" in the evening or whenever I get a chance to. I will call these "The (On the Road) Daily".
HEALTH & FITNESS
I jogged for 2.1 miles in 37 minutes to the "143 BPM - Best Foot Forward" Podrunner mix.
Blood pressure steady at 118/75.
PERSONAL GROWTH
One of the benefits of becoming more organized is the realization that we have so much. Specifically, I have been asking myself "How many of these (insert item name) do you need?" For example, I currently own eight pairs of dress shorts. These are the eight dress shorts that made the first and second cut during the purge a few days ago. I already donated all the shorts I did not like, could not fit into, or had no room for. But still, do I need eight dress shorts? Would I be OK with just six? Four? Considering I wear dress shorts perhaps once a week for a day or two, that means I could wear different shorts for two months without repeating. Sadly, I tend to gravitate toward the one or two pairs that are my favorite, and the others just sit there. Fortunately, purging and organizing has made me aware of this excessive abundance and now I can make decisions on what to keep and what to wear with awareness. Perhaps, most likely, there will be additional liberation of clothes in the not-so-distant future.
As I was working in the garage, I came across an insane number of cleaning towels. As it is often the case, the quantity has a logical explanation: every time our kitchen towels are replaced, they become garage cleaning towels. The problem, of course, is that the previous generations of kitchen-towels-turned-into-garage-towels linger on in the garage for years and years. Of course, they are not all in one place, where it would be obvious that there was an issue. No, they take shelter and hide from view until one fine day we discover they had taken over the garage. Or something like that. So how many of these towels do we need? Many (for now). Granted, these are often used to wipe oil and grease, etc., and they are truly not worth washing, so now that awareness has set in, like a beacon in the night to guide me, I will be able to keep the numbers to a reasonable level.
A nice jog this morning (albeit later than normal) for 2.26 miles in 40 minutes to the great Podrunner track called "137 BPM - Paced Out." For the record, I do not profit from any of you using Podrunner's mixes; I donate to Podrunner on a monthly basis and I hope others will enjoy the tracks and also help Steve continue offering these great workout mixes.
My blood pressure was amazing again today. I pulled 109/68 this evening. Jogging, meditation and Yoga are working!
Today was a better day for nutrition.
GOALS, DREAMS, HABITS, RITUALS
During Saturday and Sunday I navigated the days without a to-do list. That was frustrating because I know I can accomplish so much more when I do have a list to help me along my crazy days. In reflecting on this, I realized that the biggest stumbling block was to create the initial list with all the daily items in it. Last night I decided to create a list for each day of this week. That should help me get over that roadblock. Indeed, it worked quite well this morning and I feel much better about all the things I can accomplish today.
The one drawback of creating future to-do lists is that if something drastic changes in your "master list" then you either have to update a bunch of daily lists or re-do them from scratch. However, that is a small price to pay for being organized and more in control of your day. I suggest limiting the list creation to one week at a time. This would also allow us to apply Dr. Covey's planning strategies and put first things first and start with the end in mind. What do we want to accomplish in the week ahead? Let's plan those "big rocks" before all the smaller rocks take space in our mind and schedule.
PERSONAL GROWTH
Enjoy this video on the "AMRAP Mentality." I think there is much value in what the video advocates (warning: there is a commercial for "Chegg" studying services near the end of the video.)
TIPS & TRICKS
If you need some help implementing the AMRAP strategy detailed above, consider using the Pomodoro Technique (and, yes, there is an app for that). The Pomodoro Technique helps you focus for 25 minutes on one task, and then nudges you to take breaks at regular intervals. This time management approach instills the AMRAP philosophy because during the work periods you go all out at whatever the task is, avoiding all distractions (telephone, email, etc.). I have successfully used this technique for decades.
STREAKS - For the record
Current list of streaks:
Writing: day 26
Blood Pressure Readings: day 13 (amazingly nice numbers: 109/68)
Florence passed quietly over the city in the middle of the night. It is still raining today and will continue to do so through Wednesday. Winds have died down to a constant breeze.
TODAY'S NOTES
Today is Independence Day in my native Mexico. This normally is a day of celebration throughout the country, a great excuse to party and be happy. And yet, throughout the last 208 years, Mexico has struggled to free itself from a seemingly endless chain of dictators. Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1810. A century later, in 1910, the country endured a bloody revolution that was supposed to benefit the masses. Instead, corruption ate through the country so that an elite class, many of them politicians,became the modern version of a dictator. At the same time, the country has been under the dictatorship of its neighbor to the north, being forced to endure whatever the USA wished to impose on them. Political dictatorship, economical dictatorship, cultural dictatorship — Mexico has seen them all, continues to see them all, strives still to free itself from it all. I miss much of Mexico, especially the people. I do not miss the corruption, the immoral inequality between the few ultra-rich and the many poor; sadly, the same is happening in the USA. It all boils down to greed. When those in power are not satisfied with "enough" and instead they want it all, and they want it all for themselves, all the time, for all times. Historically, this is how civilizations begin to crumble.
HEALTH & FITNESS
Another wet jog this morning to log 2.83 miles in 53 minutes. I chose Podrunner's "135 BPM - Amplifier" track and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. It was wet, with steady rain all through the jog. I have now removed the NHS Couch-to-5K tracks from my phone. It is obvious I now need to work on improving performance and not simply getting to run 30 minutes at a time.
As planned, I opted to use the Saucony shoes with the improved insoles. It was a great choice. The shoes, insoles and socks got thoroughly soaked. The better insoles made a huge difference in the comfort of these shoes. I enjoyed the run and got back home pain free. Although my shoes were soaked, they only felt slightly heavier than heavier than normal. That was a very pleasant surprise.
Today's run was the second in a row in the rain. With the dampness from the rain and the heat of running (and having a raincoat) my old problem of hives came back both days. In the past I would have opted for anti-histamines and scratched the heck out of every bump on me. For the last two days I simply took a cool shower and did some deep breathing. It only took a few minutes for the intense itching to pass and the hives to begin receding. This condition is called cholinergic urticaria, or heat hives. According to something I read today, I may benefit from using cotton instead of polyester shirts. There is also a suggestion of using a vinegar solution to calm the itching down. Further reading indicates Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) is helpful. I definitely will try it.
GOALS, DREAMS, HABITS, RITUALS
Current list of streaks:
Writing: day 18
Blood Pressure Readings: 5 days in a row. Apparently I missed a reading on 9/11/18. Today's readings are a tad higher than they have been (130/80). Worked on it a little through meditation and got it down to 116/67.
Logging to SparkPeople: 8 days in a row (began entering food and activity data)
Intermittent Fasting: 1 day (I did great last night and fasted for over 13 hours)
Daily Exercise Routine: 0
Cardio: Jogged 2.09 miles
Strength Training: Nope
Stretching: Yes
Meditation: Yes, 30 minutes overall in 10-minute intervals.
(In order to count this one, I am making it a bit challenging. A day will only count if it contains at least 30 minutes of cardio, at least 30 minutes of strength training, at least 10 minutes of stretching, at least six hours of sleep, and at least 10 minutes of meditation.)
Meditation: 5 days (all-time = 40): morning meditation was challenging again today. I chose a five minute meditation and my mind was all over the place. I am going to do at least one more meditative period today.
Number of tabs open: 1 day (down to two tabs open for more than a few minutes. All other tabs either closed or stored in "Read Later" (see "Personal Growth " below).
PERSONAL GROWTH
I am all into challenges. One of the most challenging thing I face everyday is the number of tabs I have open in my browser. I often have dozens of tabs open at once. Some are open permanently (for example, Gmail) and others stay up for months before I get back to them. My challenge for the next 30 days is to keep the least number of tabs open at any one time. This is in line with being a minimalist. Of course, there is always the worry of forgetting what tabs were open during some research. With help with that, I installed the "Read Later" extension in Chrome. Instead of 10-12 tabs, I managed to keep one to two tabs open. I kept Gmail going, and I kept Blogger open to add items to this post. My computer seems much happier this way. And I am managing to get a lot more done without so many distractions. A win-win situation.
INTERESTING QUOTE
"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
I recently came across this video explaining how an old time management system can be adapted to adult, modern life, for increased productivity and improved life joy. I am seriously considering doing something like this for my time management.
WEEKLY SUMMARY
This has been an amazing week. There are many things I am thankful for as we wrap up the week. Top things to be grateful for:
Hurricane Florence was only a minor inconvenience for us. Although the wind and rain were worrisome, we were fortunate not to sustain any damage. Many people in North Carolina and some in South Carolina were not as fortunate. My heart goes out to them.
I was able to accomplish some major cleaning and purging around the house. My bedroom closet is hard to recognize. There is much more to be done, but the progress is something to be grateful for.
I have been able to jog every morning, and have remained pain free. My blood pressure seems to be stable. I feel well. Life is good.
I have gotten into some great habits, especially making a daily to do list and sticking with it. The list is nothing fancy but it has been working well for getting much done; at the top of the list are items (rituals) I want to follow and the rest are items I need or want to accomplish. As a past user of DayTimers, I am delighted with the success. Getting back to a normal routine will be interesting and a true test of this system.
