20 for 2020: week 46
Week of 9 November 2020
My 20 for 2020 list.
What did I want to do better this week?
Put the phone down! Not unconsciously check Instagram.
Move more. Not stay sitting down in one place for too long.
So, how did that go then?
This work has been very busy at work and the work I’ve been doing has involved a lot of getting up and down so it’s timed very well wth the need to move. I think it’s something I need to think more about when I’m in periods where I’m doing focus work rather than that type of work, because I can quite easily sit down for an hour or more and not move if I’m engrossed in something. While that’s good for the work, it isn’t good for my body and think my work needs to be on finding out how to get in movement breaks without breaking my concentration.
I got through the whole week without checking Instagram at work, which is good. I think I need to break the habit of reaching for the phone in moments when I’m between activities. In the book Indistractable (thing 13), Nir Eyal calls these “liminal moments” and says they are danger periods for getting sucked into the phone.
Taking both these things together, it occurs to me that, I need to replace the phone habit with the habit of moving myself on those moments. What I need is for the phone to give me a small electric shock when I go to pick it up at time I don’t want to be looking at it . . .
On to 20 for 2020
That leads me nicely into the Bored and Brilliant challenge (thing 12), which is also about excessive phone use. I re-started it this week, and I’ve written a post about it that I’ll share later in the week, so I won’t go into any more detail about that here.
I’m sure you’re hanging on tenterhooks to find out if I got my uni mark (thing 8) this week. No? Just me, then.
I did and, as I expected, I passed. After a week of obsessively checking my email for the one that would tell me my result, I missed it when it did come in because I was so busy at work, and I actually got a message from one of my classmates to tell me the results were out.
I did better than I’d expected in my wildest dreams and am really happy with the result. I may have let out a strangled squeal of excitement when I saw my mark, which made my workmate sitting next to me ask if I was okay. I said I was in shock. She was worried. No, no, it’s okay, it’s good shock!
We’ll have a graduation ceremony next year so I can’t tick off the “and graduate” part of thing 8, but it’s as good as done for me.
I’ve been continuing the 50 in 50 photo challenge (thing 9) and you can see my (approximately) daily updates on my instagram.
Finally, the sprouts (thing 21) were a success so I can cross that one off too.
What else did I achieve this week?
My regular check in: I stayed up to date with my weekly photojournal and my Hobart street corners project.
What didn’t go so well?
Apart from one day when I had people at work coming at me left, right and centre, and someone trying to get me on the phone at the same time and almost melting down but managing to hold it together, this week went well.
What do I want to do better next week?
Keep working on the “replace phone use with movement” thing.
Summary of week 46
- Things completed this week: 8, 21
- Things completed to date: 14 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21)
- Things I progressed: 2 (9, 12)
- Things in progress I didn’t progress: 5 (7, 11, 13, 17, 22)
- Things not started: 1 (19)
- Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 7
- Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
- Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 0
- Days I shut my computer down before 10.15 (Goal = 7): 7
- Days I went for a walk in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 6
- Days I had a lunch break away from my desk (Goal = 5 work days): 5
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