Spring has arrived in Vancouver, and with it the last month of my break from full-time work (the reasons for the break I outlined in this post). Now seems an appropriate time to reflect how I spent my time in January, February and March. Did I achieve the goals I recklessly made public way back in January? Or turn my back on the world (and hygiene) and watch all of Battlestar Galactica in one sitting à la Portlandia? Or did I work full-time hours and just get paid less...which would really suck.
First, I have been working less, for the most part. I fell off the wagon with a full-time workweek once or twice, but overall, I work about 30 hours a week*. For me, this is a large change. Hooray!
*Sometimes I find it difficult to distinguish "work" from the rest of my life, like when I'm answering both work and personal emails before breakfast or "watching" a movie with Stephan while hunched over my laptop trying to get some writing done. I tend to be conservative and not count these times toward my work hours.
I'm slowly changing my bad work habit—and I consider chronic prioritizing of work over the rest of one's life a negative habit—because of two reasons: 1) I make a daily list of concrete goals for personal projects and scheduled time for them in my calendar, just as I would for work projects, and 2) I keep track in my calendar, roughly, of how I actually spent each day. To show what I mean, here's a typical example of my calendar this term:
I'm by no means perfect at tracking my days; I regularly forget items or sometimes entire days. January 27th is a mystery...maybe that was a Battlestar Galactica day...
Second, I have achieved many of the goals I set out in January. I needed to write that down because my mind tend to focus on what I fail to achieve, another bad habit that needs fixing. Ok, well, let's work on that now; here are my goals from January and the progress I've made:
1) Improve my knitting skills.
January: Complete at least the following: a wearable sweater (i.e., not ugly like my first sweater), one toque using a mosaic stitch, and one pair of top-down socks with a German heel.
April: I finished a sweater—a non-ugly sweater at that! I abandoned the mosaic toque because of ugliness (I'm an unabashed uglyist). I totally forgot about the German heel socks and knit two hedgehogs, snowflakes, leg warmers and a few other things instead.
2) Read more books.
First, I have been working less, for the most part. I fell off the wagon with a full-time workweek once or twice, but overall, I work about 30 hours a week*. For me, this is a large change. Hooray!
*Sometimes I find it difficult to distinguish "work" from the rest of my life, like when I'm answering both work and personal emails before breakfast or "watching" a movie with Stephan while hunched over my laptop trying to get some writing done. I tend to be conservative and not count these times toward my work hours.
I'm slowly changing my bad work habit—and I consider chronic prioritizing of work over the rest of one's life a negative habit—because of two reasons: 1) I make a daily list of concrete goals for personal projects and scheduled time for them in my calendar, just as I would for work projects, and 2) I keep track in my calendar, roughly, of how I actually spent each day. To show what I mean, here's a typical example of my calendar this term:
 |
| A snapshot of my calendar. Blue = work, brown and red = personal projects or activities |
Second, I have achieved many of the goals I set out in January. I needed to write that down because my mind tend to focus on what I fail to achieve, another bad habit that needs fixing. Ok, well, let's work on that now; here are my goals from January and the progress I've made:
 |
| First sweater! |
April: I finished a sweater—a non-ugly sweater at that! I abandoned the mosaic toque because of ugliness (I'm an unabashed uglyist). I totally forgot about the German heel socks and knit two hedgehogs, snowflakes, leg warmers and a few other things instead.
2) Read more books.
January: Complete two books each month. This month’s books are Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne and Teaching What You Don’t Know by Therese Houston.
April: Why is reading so hard??? Sitting still makes my brain cry. If I didn't schedule time for reading, it wouldn't happen; I'm an impostor bookworm. There, that's my shameful secret. I did manage to read the two books above as well as Adventures In Solitude by Grant Lawrence, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, I Don't Like My Neck by Nora Ephron, How Learning Works by Susan Ambrose et al. and a collection of the works of S.J. Perelman. But oh, my god, sitting still long enough to ingest words through my mind-mouth is hard.
April: Why is reading so hard??? Sitting still makes my brain cry. If I didn't schedule time for reading, it wouldn't happen; I'm an impostor bookworm. There, that's my shameful secret. I did manage to read the two books above as well as Adventures In Solitude by Grant Lawrence, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, I Don't Like My Neck by Nora Ephron, How Learning Works by Susan Ambrose et al. and a collection of the works of S.J. Perelman. But oh, my god, sitting still long enough to ingest words through my mind-mouth is hard.
3) Spend more time outdoors.
January: Twice a month I will do something more adventurous than my day-to-day walking, jogging and cycling around Vancouver. Can be anything from hiking, snowshoeing, snowboarding, day-long cycling trip, etc.
April: Adventures! I've been snowboarding SIX times thanks to my generous friends Mandy Banet and Kyle Demes, snowshoeing on Mt. Cypress and Mt. Washington, hiking on Galiano Island and I'm taking a Tai Chi class with Stephan. That last one might not sound adventurous, but it is. A stealth adventure.
January: Twice a month I will do something more adventurous than my day-to-day walking, jogging and cycling around Vancouver. Can be anything from hiking, snowshoeing, snowboarding, day-long cycling trip, etc.
April: Adventures! I've been snowboarding SIX times thanks to my generous friends Mandy Banet and Kyle Demes, snowshoeing on Mt. Cypress and Mt. Washington, hiking on Galiano Island and I'm taking a Tai Chi class with Stephan. That last one might not sound adventurous, but it is. A stealth adventure.
 |
| Stephan and the slopes of Mt. Washington on Vancouver Island |
4) Practice photography skills.
January: I have listed 42 techniques from my favourite Scott Kelby photography book that I want to improve on and will specifically practice.
April: Ha! Not one done. Oh, I've taken pictures, and I'm particularly absorbed of late with my iPhone 4S camera and the wonderful world of Instagram and Flickr, but I haven't been as systematic as I wanted with my photography skills. Fail.
January: I have listed 42 techniques from my favourite Scott Kelby photography book that I want to improve on and will specifically practice.
April: Ha! Not one done. Oh, I've taken pictures, and I'm particularly absorbed of late with my iPhone 4S camera and the wonderful world of Instagram and Flickr, but I haven't been as systematic as I wanted with my photography skills. Fail.
 |
| Instagram filters make everything pretty, including tiny dinosaurs |
5) Increase my professional and personal presence online.
January: Make weekly blog post and e-portfolio.
April: Blog posts have been bi-weekly, but they exist, so I'm happy. E-portfolio is done too, hoo-frickin'-ray!
January: Make weekly blog post and e-portfolio.
April: Blog posts have been bi-weekly, but they exist, so I'm happy. E-portfolio is done too, hoo-frickin'-ray!
6) Become more involved in my community through volunteering.
January: Volunteer at least once for a cause related to science education outreach, a cause related to the environment, and a cause related to women’s rights.
April: Total fail here. Well, almost. I did join two organizations and go to one orientation session but didn't like it enough to go back. I am volunteering with an elementary school on a science outreach project, but it isn't outside of my comfort zone and I wanted to gain new experiences with volunteering. I really need to improve on this goal.
Wow, I'm doing better than I thought with these goals. Reflection really does help. Moving forward, for the rest of April I need be more systematic about improving my photography and I need to find some local cause that I am engaged enough with to stick-it-out past than the orientation. How about you, what are some of your goals and how do you keep yourself motivated?
