As school got up and running for the Spring semester it’s been a shaky time when it comes to my goals. I’d say it’s a combination of always trying to do too much and having some days lately where I just squandered time and didn’t apply great effort. Tomorrow is another day though!
One month goals – January: Begin blogging, February – Begin scheduling routine events in my week
Wrapping up my January goal… I added an RSS feed button and a subscription option to the right side of my site! I had assumed a subscription option would be as simple as people enter email address, people get emails. Ehh… not so much. The current setup works with with a site called EmailOctopus that manages the subscription list and allows me to send out emails manually to the list. I think it’s probably a fine option but certainly more and more I feel like this website thing is a little over my head!
For my February goal I had chose trying to work some regular “events” back onto my schedule. These are things I had done in the past and found were helpful in trying to balance out my weeks.
Here’s what I’m working with…
Zoo – We have a zoo membership and don’t live/work that far from there. Ideally I’d like to get some down there most weeks for an hour to get a short break to see some animals. I did make it down this week for… about 15 minutes before going to dinner with Chantelle. I saw a fish with a shellfish in its mouth!
Sunrise – This may be the most important thing I can schedule. I like to pick one day a week to spend outside at sunrise taking it all in. The way the sky changes from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after is pretty remarkable. I enjoy just sitting there thinking about my life or walking as well. These times are great both out in nature or in city settings. This week I sat down by the Lake in Heartland of America Park, perhaps a bit chilly but a good time of reflection.
Night Hikes – This is more of a monthly thing. We haven’t gone on one since the bad one in August at Nebraska National Forest that had us hiking 1.5 miles down an abandoned grown over trail catching burrs all over our shoes and only staying remotely on track because of AllTrails on my cellphone. These are often best near a full moon when it’s easiest to see without artificial light so I’ll be looking to do one in a couple weeks.
No Screen Time – This is one of the easiest things for me to schedule but hardest to actually execute. Despite the title I’m not totally opposed to being on the computer during this time but would want to avoid social media, browsing the web, listening to podcasts, etc. Ideally there’s some non-computer things to work on during this time though. I would like to get a break an hour a day, and for a nice 4-hour stretch once a week. I got this on the schedule a few times this week but can’t say I executed it the best. I did listen to a few albums though yesterday while doing my best to avoid podcasts in the afternoon.
Chantelle Time – I see some value in trying to put a couple hours aside each week to do what my wife would like. This probably needs to be more formally communicated (i.e. Thurs night I’ll clear my schedule for whatever plans you want to make) to really work right. I also would like to spend more time each week prioritizing some things on my to do list that involve her but that’s been hard to make time for often in the past. We’ll see if I have any luck going forward.
While sitting at sunrise I found myself thinking it might be a boost to me to spend an hour a week reading a fiction book somewhere nice. I was picturing a warm sunny day in the park but theoretically this could be somewhere like a coffee shop or a library as well. I’m a bit of an entertainment snob who thinks books are probably a superior form of entertainment to movies/TV shows (and especially those terrible video games). But I don’t read much anymore and most reading I do is non-fiction. I haven’t gotten lost in a book nearly enough in the last 20 years. Making my self spend some time getting back into that habit might help balance out my productivity focus and make me a more well rounded person. Going to try to incorporate this into my weeks more going forward.
Three month goal – Prepare house for having regular visitors
Our house is generally more clean than in the past but still need to get together with Chantelle and discuss what we feel needs to be different before we’d feel ready to have people over regularly with less advanced notice. There have been some things that might have been good occasions to invite buddies over for (CFB Playoffs, Super Bowl) but I’ve had to work overnight after most of that stuff this year. I keep thinking next year I want to feel like I can invite people over without having to think twice about it.
Six month goals – Weight loss, disciplines, connecting with family
Have not made any good progress losing weight. Too much snacking around the house. My habit as of late is to do things like buy 5 pounds of chicken breast when I need 2 pounds for a recipe. Then proceed to eat half a chicken breast of the leftovers everyday when I come home from work as a snack. And a few handfuls of cheese and some crackers and maybe some pickles. I feel like this is holding me back from better exercise so it’s something I need to get serious about next week. Good thing there is some leftover breakfast casserole in the fridge and I’m sure to have leftovers from potluck tomorrow…
Have continued to struggle to find time to focus on my disciplines I found beneficial in 2023. I’ve done a good job of turning cleaning the cat littler into an easy habit everyday but less so doing the NYT crossword, reading a few pages of Pearls Before Swine comics, reading my Bible, and stretching. Still find time for Facebook videos though as a distraction…
Have been able to connect with family much more in the last couple weeks. We had a nice long lunch with Chantelle’s parents a few weeks ago and I was able to talk to my Grandma Green on the phone that week as well. Just over a week ago my mother’s aunt passed away and so there were a lot of chances to see family on that side with the funeral last week. Really enjoyed a nice dinner at my parents with my siblings and grandparents there. This is the time of year where it would be pretty easy to not see anyone again until Easter so might take some intention to keep this going.
Full year goals – Running events, MBA program
Got 3.75 mile runs in 10 times over the last 14 days. Some of them were really good – Monday I did 3.75 miles of hilly Hitchcock (with some muddy areas to slowly go around) in 51 minutes. Only would have to do that 27 times in 34 hours to complete the 100 mile race there… ha! Others were pretty poor – My 3.75 miles at totally flat Boyer Chute was nearly identical in time. Today my legs felt tired and I just didn’t feel any drive to try hard, just wasn’t interested in pushing. I tried some more motivational music and was still not going until the Rocky song (Gonna Fly Now) came on and it felt really wrong to not even try then. It wasn’t like I felt super up for it but I started focusing on my stride and the basics of what I was doing and I had my best quarter-mile of the day. A lot of my battle with running is a mental thing and about putting out a good effort even when I’m not really eager to.
I’ve been able to get my MBA assignments done on time so far this semester but haven’t gotten the reading done as early in the week as I would like. There will be some bigger assignments throughout the semester but a lot of it is 1) Do the reading 2) Post on discussion board. Ideally Mon/Tues I have the reading done so I am not scrambling to post to the discussion board at the last minute. That’s going to require having strong starts to the week and so far that’s not happened.
Couple of weeks ago… Water levels were low enough this offshoot of the Missouri River was pretty much dry other than the snow. I got to run a bit in the river bed!
Sunrise at the park!
Well thanks for reading. Hope you’re having a good February and finding some success in whatever you’re striving after this month! May you see the challenges flying at you and deftly avoid them to make the winning play like Nikola Jokic.