Weekly Review and Planning 10th January 2010

January 10, 2010

This year I’m making an effort to be more organised and have decided to adopt a planning and review cycle similar to the one outlined in Getting Things Done. I’ve learned, through the various books and blogs and through my own personal experiences in the last year or two, that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” I’m hoping that by planning, monitoring, and reviewing my daily activities and weekly progress, I will be better able identify and reduce the blocks in the way of my personal success, as well as identifying and making habitual any positive, effective behaviours.

What did I get done?

I use Google Tasks to manage my to-do lists. This is a list of some of the major items I ticked off from these lists this week:

  • Sold 2 old programming books through Amazon (earning me £17.69)
  • Setup account on www.justgiving.com in order to sponsor a girl in the Room to Read program
  • Emailed friends about potential fitness challenges (marathons, triathlons etc.) in 2010
  • Confirmed our trip to London to see England vs Wales in the Six Nations
  • Cleaned up my Google Docs folders
  • Created an exercise log to track my fitness progress for the year
  • Liaised with a couple of clients about websites – not planning to continue with freelance work in the foreseeable future
  • Completed weekly finance tracking (uploading my weekly spending to Wesabe)
  • Claimed Christmas train ticket on work expenses
  • Returned the Asrock Ion 330 home theatre PC I bought before Christmas (configuring it was sucking too much time out of my life). The £336 I received as a refund is going straight to my Discount Account.
  • Read Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl (review to come).

One of my goals this year is to exercise every single day. Yep, every single day. At least 365 workouts in 2010. I’m tracking my progress in a Google spreadsheet. This is the log of the first 9 days of the year:

  • Friday Jan 1st – Ran 9.19km around Roath Lake – 40:19 min, 9.19 km, 13.7 km/hr.
  • Saturday Jan 2nd -6km interval running on treadmill + a few laps of 20m pool.
  • Sunday Jan 3rd – 30 minutes of stretching. Stretching in front of a movie at home (The Family Man – Nicholas Cage).
  • Monday Jan 4th – 15km run on treadmill in 1:18:58 at 11.5km/h.
  • Tuesday Jan 5th – Ease-into-it shoulder weight session and abs.
  • Wednesday Jan 6th – 4.7km interval running and ease-into-it chest weight session.
  • Thursday Jan 7th – Ease-into-it back weights session.
  • Friday Jan 8th – 7.88km run on treadmill at 12.5km/h.
  • Saturday Jan 9th – Ran to the gym (4.18km total) for ease-into-it legs and arms weights session

Another of my goals in 2010 is to be more conscious of my complaints and negativity, and conversely, to put more emphasis on the positive things in my life. To do this, I’m tweeting each and every time I make a complaint or a negative remark, and also those times when I really stop for a moment to appreciate the good things in life. Here are my negative tweets since the new year:

And the positive:

What went well?

First of all the fact that I have actually completed this first review is monumental in itself. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve tried to sit down on a Sunday to review the previous week and plan the forthcoming one, only to question the worth of it and give up.

I am really proud of the fact that I’ve now completed 9 days of exercise in a row, and I’m excited that my fitness is getting better and better. I’m running 10km on the treadmill at 12.5km/hr, something that I struggled to do at 11.0km/hr not too long ago, and I don’t remember the last time I ran 15km straight (even if I’ve ever done it).

I’m happy, and quite surprised, that I tweeted twice as many positives as I did complaints/negatives. Before I started the conscious complaint challenge I thought I would be tweeting negatives a lot more than I have done, and to go through the whole week (+3 days) only complaining four times is a good start. I’m not sure whether this pace will be difficult to maintain; time will tell.

What didn’t go so well?

I had planned to be up early in the mornings and getting to the gym before work. Unfortunately I only managed to do this once this week, a trend that I want to change. Not only do I feel like a million dollars after a hard gym session and a refreshing shower in the mornings, but it also frees up my evenings to do whatever I want (when I haven’t planned too many projects). I feel better, work better, eat better and get more things done when I manage to crawl out of bed without convincing myself that I should stay in it.

There are a few other bits and pieces that I want to change or improve in my daily/weekly routine in 2010, but in the spirit of minimising and not trying to do too much, I’ll let myself off this week and write about my progress next week.

My goals for the upcoming week

Along with all the other little to-dos that consistently pop up, I want to have the following items ticked off my lists:

  • Apply for a joint credit card
  • Have accommodation for the Helly Hansen Adventure Challenge organised
  • Research and book in for a marathon in 2010
  • Research and book in for 2 triathlons in 2010
  • Finish the Tigers Club website images and request payment
  • Have a Photoshop mockup of new client’s website finished and delivered
  • Visit a cafe I haven’t been to before

And in the spirit of my year of 2010 – eliminate everything that is unnecessary from my life, because less is definitely more.

Leave a Comment