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Update against my goals for the year.
Meta:
To-doist seems to be working for me, but most new systems lead to some improvements intitially, so I'll be more impressed if it's continuing to work in another couple of months.
Monthly update - check
No new projects - qualified success; I haven't taken on any new projects, but starting to work away from home is using a lot of energy and time, which would otherwise go on existing projects
Finance:
I deliberately set a January budget that was only about 66% of a proportional share of my annual goal, as I figured it would be good to give myself a bit of breathing space. As it turns out, that was a bit ambitious, but I would have come quite close to it without one particular impulse purchase of a painting, which isn't the sort of thing I'm likely to do every month. And even with that, it was still well under what it needed to be to stay on track for the year. It did, however, feel pretty restrictive, and partly worked by deciding to put spending on certain things off until February rather than forgoing them completely. February's budget comes in at about 86% of what it would need to be to meet my annual goal, but feels quite a bit more relaxed - there's a couple of treats, and a bit more leeway in the eating out budget, so I think I should be able to stick to it.
Faith & Church
These things are a little bit harder to track. I'm doing reaonably well at saying the examen regularly, and the talking to people after Mass, and plans are afoot to revive the St John's singers. I'm doing less well at the finding time for longer periods of private prayer - mostly because I'm not quite sure how to start, so I put it off. I think clearly the solution is to start by making some time to think about and plan what my prayer life might look like for the next little while, and whilst I can obviously deviate from that as the spirit wills, it means I'll have something there to default to, which should make me less likely to procrastinate.
Health
Running is going reasonably well. I had a subgoal of 100 miles in January, and I just made it, but in a rather uneven fashion. I got lots of miles in the first week, but then a combination of sore legs from having overdone it and life being a bit unsettled meant that I did very little for the subsequent fortnight, which left me with 45 miles to do in the final 10 days of the month. I'm setting a slightly more challenging target of 112 miles for February (more so because it's a short month), as well as an intention to run every day except Fridays unless there's snow. The plan is Mon - easy, Tues - intervals, Wed - easy, Thur - intervals, Fri - rest, Sat - Parkrun, Sun - long run. Speaking of Parkrun, I did 5 in January, so on target for 40 in the year, but there were two bonus runs available on NYD, which there won't be most months.
I haven't done anything towards my strength goals, but that's okay for now.
Hobbies
I've applied to take my Grade 5, but haven't got a date for it yet. I think I'm mostly ready for it, but I'm a bit concerned because I haven't managed to sort out anywhere to practice in Huddersfield, and my flat is too small to bring my spare piano up here, so I think I might backslide. I did well at the regular practice until I moved up to Hudds, but the lack of piano has rather scuppered that. What I should be doing is singing practice instead, but so far I haven't managed to get into a routine, so that's something to work on in February.
I've started reading plays as the first step towards hosting more readthroughs this year, and I'm doing quite well at the cooking things - 5 new recipes so far and one dinner party. Also, keeping track of recipes is helpful, because I can make notes on what worked and what didn't and remember to revisit the ones I like. I haven't seen any plays, but I have four in the diary in February and March.
Meta:
To-doist seems to be working for me, but most new systems lead to some improvements intitially, so I'll be more impressed if it's continuing to work in another couple of months.
Monthly update - check
No new projects - qualified success; I haven't taken on any new projects, but starting to work away from home is using a lot of energy and time, which would otherwise go on existing projects
Finance:
I deliberately set a January budget that was only about 66% of a proportional share of my annual goal, as I figured it would be good to give myself a bit of breathing space. As it turns out, that was a bit ambitious, but I would have come quite close to it without one particular impulse purchase of a painting, which isn't the sort of thing I'm likely to do every month. And even with that, it was still well under what it needed to be to stay on track for the year. It did, however, feel pretty restrictive, and partly worked by deciding to put spending on certain things off until February rather than forgoing them completely. February's budget comes in at about 86% of what it would need to be to meet my annual goal, but feels quite a bit more relaxed - there's a couple of treats, and a bit more leeway in the eating out budget, so I think I should be able to stick to it.
Faith & Church
These things are a little bit harder to track. I'm doing reaonably well at saying the examen regularly, and the talking to people after Mass, and plans are afoot to revive the St John's singers. I'm doing less well at the finding time for longer periods of private prayer - mostly because I'm not quite sure how to start, so I put it off. I think clearly the solution is to start by making some time to think about and plan what my prayer life might look like for the next little while, and whilst I can obviously deviate from that as the spirit wills, it means I'll have something there to default to, which should make me less likely to procrastinate.
Health
Running is going reasonably well. I had a subgoal of 100 miles in January, and I just made it, but in a rather uneven fashion. I got lots of miles in the first week, but then a combination of sore legs from having overdone it and life being a bit unsettled meant that I did very little for the subsequent fortnight, which left me with 45 miles to do in the final 10 days of the month. I'm setting a slightly more challenging target of 112 miles for February (more so because it's a short month), as well as an intention to run every day except Fridays unless there's snow. The plan is Mon - easy, Tues - intervals, Wed - easy, Thur - intervals, Fri - rest, Sat - Parkrun, Sun - long run. Speaking of Parkrun, I did 5 in January, so on target for 40 in the year, but there were two bonus runs available on NYD, which there won't be most months.
I haven't done anything towards my strength goals, but that's okay for now.
Hobbies
I've applied to take my Grade 5, but haven't got a date for it yet. I think I'm mostly ready for it, but I'm a bit concerned because I haven't managed to sort out anywhere to practice in Huddersfield, and my flat is too small to bring my spare piano up here, so I think I might backslide. I did well at the regular practice until I moved up to Hudds, but the lack of piano has rather scuppered that. What I should be doing is singing practice instead, but so far I haven't managed to get into a routine, so that's something to work on in February.
I've started reading plays as the first step towards hosting more readthroughs this year, and I'm doing quite well at the cooking things - 5 new recipes so far and one dinner party. Also, keeping track of recipes is helpful, because I can make notes on what worked and what didn't and remember to revisit the ones I like. I haven't seen any plays, but I have four in the diary in February and March.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-01 12:56 pm (UTC)From:It's worth asking if there are music practice rooms at the university that you could book; I did this when I worked at Imperial for a bit. Failing that, local churches often have (terrible) pianos and might be okay with someone coming in to practice for a half hour before/after e.g. a weekday evening or lunchtime Mass, or Evening Prayer, or something.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-01 02:13 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-02-01 04:06 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-02-01 04:06 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 04:48 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-02-05 02:05 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-02-13 03:08 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2019-02-13 04:35 pm (UTC)From: