I’ve been a tad lazy/busy over the last couple of weeks; so much so that I didn’t even get around to doing my weekly review and planning last week. I could throw up a number of different excuses, some of which are quite valid, but in the end it just comes down to becoming unfocused and not staying organised and on top of things. This past week has been a really busy one in work. I’ve started at around 8am each morning and generally haven’t finished up until 5:30-6pm, even working through until 7:30pm on Thursday. Also, in an effort to save some extra cash, I’ve taken to driving Em to the train station in the mornings and picking her up in the evenings for the 3 days per week she commutes to Bristol. This means she doesn’t have to pay £9 each day to park at the station; potential savings of £27 each week, and over £100 each month. This also means I have less flexibility in my schedule as well as less time.
What did I get done?
The following list is the list of todos I had at the beginning of the week starting 18th January. Unfortunately I went a little off track with monitoring, and actually doing, my todos. One reason for this is the amount of work I dedicated to one particular task (finishing off the Stow Park website). The client became incredibly demanding and picky with regards to the look and functionality of the site. Fortunately there are only a few minor tweaks left to finish off and I can (gladly) put it behind me.
- Complete three abdominal workouts
- Tweet at least 20 times (hopefully the majority positive)
- Ensure I have a prepared lunch every single day
- Book into the London triathlon (sprint) and one west Wales triathlon (Olympic distance)
- Book into the Athens Classic marathon
- Apply for a joint credit card
- Finish off and invoice Stow Park website
- Complete remaining work for Tigers Club website (and invoice)
As you can see, there ain’t a lot of ticks in that list. As I write this, some two weeks after I created this list, most of the items are still ‘todos’ that are floating around and never seem to get done.
On the fitness front I’m still powering on with my goal of exercising everyday in 2010. Towards the end of this week I missed a few sessions because I was working such long hours, but as I write this I’ve already done two makeup sessions in the form of back to back BodyPump and RPM classes on Saturday, and back to back Keiser Cycling classes on Monday.
- Monday 18th Jan – 12km run at 12km/hr
- Tuesday 19th Jan – 15 minutes of stretching in front of the television
- Wednesday 20th Jan – 7.55km run on the treadmill at 13.0km/hr (pushing for 10km)
- Thursday 21st Jan – Hard chest weight session and abdominals
- Friday 22nd Jan – Hard back weights session
- Saturday 23rd Jan – 5.5km of interval running at 11km/hr & 16km/hr and shoulder weights
- Sunday 24th Jan – 35 minutes of stretching (really noticing an increase in flexibility)
- Monday 25th Jan -
- Tuesday 26th Jan – 9km run on the treadmill in 41 minutes at 13.2km/hr
- Wednesday 27th Jan – 1 hour yoga session at home
- Thursday 28th Jan -
- Friday 29th Jan -
- Saturday 30th Jan – BodyPump session and 1 hour RPM session (makeup session)
- Sunday 31st Jan – 3.7km run at 12.7km/hr (aiming for 15km) + 1.5km swim
What went well?
Despite missing three sessions this last week, my training is one of the biggest positives in my life right now. I’m getting to the gym frequently, stretching and doing yoga when I can’t, and really noticing the improvements in strength, aerobic/anaerobic capacity, flexibility and in my levels of positivity and happiness as a result. When I ran my first 10km back on 20th December 2009, I was blowing like a hurricane in the last 2km and I was only running at 12km/hr. Now I’m flying through 10km at 13.2km/hr; 12km/hr feels like a gentle jog.
What didn’t go so well?
The website I’m working on at the moment took over a lot of my free time in the last couple of weeks. Nights when I would normally sit down and either relax or tick off a few todo items were consumed by tweaks to this colour, that image etc. I’ve decided I won’t be doing anymore freelance work for a while, at least until I work out exactly what it is I want to be doing on the side (of my day job), if anything at all.
Also, I completely stopped doing my daily planning and review, or following any sort of ‘getting things done’ routine, which is highlighted clear as day in the number of items ticked off in the list of todos above. I find that if I’m not consciously assigning myself a couple of things to tick of each day, my todo items just float around in my head, giving me the feeling that I’ve got too much to do. When things aren’t written down or scheduled, and when I don’t assign myself time to plan and review, the things I have to get done will pop into my head at random times, inconvenient times, and I’ll say to myself that I’ll do them later. But I never do them later because I never plan a time when I will get them done; the cycle repeats, over and over.
My goals for the upcoming week
This week is going to be about getting back on track. I’m going to do this by first of all completing all of the todos I haven’t done in the last couple of weeks, as well as re-reading Getting Things Done. Hopefully this will inspire me to start getting on top of the seemingly endless list of things that need to get done.
- Book into the London triathlon (sprint) and one west Wales triathlon (Olympic distance)
- Book into the Athens Classic marathon
- Apply for a joint credit card
- Finish off and invoice Stow Park website
- Get money back from friends for Stereophonics tickets
- Read Getting Things Done by David Allen