SymphonicDan

Ahah amazing—this is actually how I got into fitness at age 12, seeing how high I could jump onto and over things! Cool to see that you've found my gamification of productivity templates 😛

Ahh super happy for you all! I just thought about you and logged on to check! Hope everything is well

Wait what? It's the end of the challenge already? I' had kinda forgotten about these forums but had been continuing with the challenge! Basically there has been no real change in the last few weeks, but the challenge has helped point me in the right direction. Here's a sort of summary, although I'll just be continuing with the same gamified system for the foreseeable future: Goal #1: Keep Active I've been doing a lot of cycling, and found a really nice 10 km route (6 miles) through the countryside with only light hills. Then I searched in my garage for a bunch of heavy objects and created a weightlifting routine using a shopping basket and a pile of bricks. The biggest problem that the fine wires of the basket hurt my fingers when holding it, so I'll see if there are any more ergonomic options available 😛 My hamstrings and glutes were very sore afterwards, so it did the job xD Goal #2: Wim Hof Cold showers are easy now - partly because I'm used to them and partly because the water is warmer anyway. I've been doing the breathing technique as normal about 50% of days. Two rounds, usually with retentions times something like 2:20 and 2:45, which is long enough that I don't do a 3rd round. Goal #3: Meditation I might just have made this a habit in the last week! I've actually found it better to do this in the morning before getting out of bed. I'll do a 10-minute meditation, experimenting with different ideas, but generally starting focusing on my breathing, then on the sounds around me, and then just resting for a few minutes with a clear mind, and I quite like that pattern Goal #4: Productivity This got abandoned as an explicit goal during the challenge, and I've mostly been "productive" by experimenting with various ideas for the future... like applying for freelance jobs, talking to clients, planning online courses and website features, etc. It has probably been valuable but to be honest has been unsatisfying as I have very little concrete to show for it. Just notes, half-finished projects, ideas, emails I'm waiting on, etc. So I'm still not sure what I should be working on professionally, especially when the lockdown thaws and it's possible to go visit places again... Part of me thinks I should start up something ambitious and experimental. Part of me thinks I should just look for interesting freelance stuff, and part of me wonders whether it would be more fun working with people in an office again... So for the moment - I'm still in a kind of professional limbo.

Good point - there's probably two different perceptions of time... Maybe the first is affected mostly by big changes, like lockdown life is quite different to "normal" life... and the other is affected by paying attention to the details in life? Like time passes more slowly when you pay attention to the details, and when every day follows the same pattern then 10 days feels much like 30 days.

Good job with the handstand challenge! You make it look quite easy even if that wasn't your smoothest take! Cereal and ice cream is a magnificent combination! In Lisbon I found a cereal café with all sorts of international cereals, different milks, toppings, and of course some ice cream. I was a good customer of theirs 😛 There's also one in London but it costs like $10 for a bowl while in Lisbon it was $5 and looked cooler, with all retro furnishings.

Things are mostly fine here although my sleep schedule is still on Atlantis time, meaning my morning routine is pretty much to have breakfast and lunch at the same time 😛 I can't believe that it's already day 29 of the lockdown - it feels something like 13 days! I guess when every day is the same then time contracts... For the past year I've been thinking a lot about what properties make time contract or dilate (as in, what makes us think that time is "going quickly" or "going slowly"?) and repetition seems a clear candidate... Now that it's not super cold I went out for a 2300m run (not long but I prefer short fast runs unless I'm out in the countryside) except that I was definitely not fast But it was good to get my body used to the idea of running again, not just cycling etc. My little stabilizer muscles around my ankles were super sore for a few days, so hopefully they're prepared now for my next run! While waiting for any of my clients to actually give me work, I taught myself to make plugins for Wordpress (written in PHP) and made this little tool for my mental math site - you give it two currencies (e.g. Icelandic Króna and US Dollar) and it tells you rules for converting between the currencies in your head. This is the first version, so please let me know if you find any bugs or have any feedback about usability or if it's confusing Final update is that a breathwork app I did some writing work for have given me a beta version of the app - so I'll be checking that out in the next couple of days. So far it looks very pretty but the audio guides didn't make much sense...

Yes - I was pleasantly surprised! Nearby I only went to Sintra, which was really nice. The old buildings were cool but the place just had a nice vibe to it and nice backpackers in the hostel so I would have stayed for a few more days if I could (but I had a fun week-long event starting in Lisbon). For the meditation I think I mostly just need routine. I did it yesterday evening though so maybe that's the start of a streak! If I ever get to taking them out, I'll see I think that it's allowed according to the lockdown rules, but strangely the government hasn't issued specific advice about taking circus and calisthenics equipment out into public spaces 😛 True - although there are reasons for my effective timezone to be similar to people around me, and clients are confused when I say "I'm available from midday to midnight", so I've added a new column to the spreadsheet for days when I sleep early enough (currently 01:15 but that might change both ways). I've retroactively assigned points to this for the previous days which was easily because it was a big fat zero for every day 😛 Current average score is 7.59/day. Hopefully with some better discipline and routine I'll get that up to 10.00 in the following days

Ouch, that sounds awful Hope that the worst of that is over! And yes, I'm in favour of the social distancing rules and fining people who don't respect them etc., but some of the rules don't make any sense. If you live in the same house as people there's practically no added danger in doing anything else with them. A friend came back a few days ago from being trapped abroad. He came on a government-arranged flight for stranded UK nationals, and then drove in a hire car direct to his parents' village where he was going to stay for 2 weeks the vacant house of a family friend. The police caught him and fined him (€35) for "non-essential" travel, despite not being able to suggest any better options to him. I mean, he wasn't going to sleep in the airport until the lockdown is over...! 🤔

Slacklines always give me a reality check these days when I try them. I'm thinking "ooh a slackline! I'm good at these!" and then can barely balance for 3 seconds. Really the biggest difficulty is that each slackline is set up differently, with e.g. different length and tightness, and it takes your body a while to get used to each slackline unless you've recently had experience on lots of different ones. You'll probably "learn" to walk on that slackline relatively fast as your body already knows pretty much what's going on!

Oops, I've been terrible at updating this, and it's clearly not because I've been out on any adventures! Goal #1: Keep Active: To be honest I was feeling pretty unsporty when I started this challenge. Several months of low activity apparently does that 😛 But I've been out cycling a lot, discovered a rowing machine at home, and threw the occasional sets of push-ups, and feel like I'm getting back into the groove I also discovered my gymnastics rings and hurdling set, so I can play with those sometime. Luckily in the UK it's still allowed to leave the house for exercise once per day, so I'm making the most of that. Goal #2: Wim Hof: I've been doing cold showers about 80% of days (okay, starting hot and finishing with a minute on the coldest setting) and that's working very well for me. It was nice to come out of the cold shower and feel warm for a while afterwards (it increases your metabolism and causes the blood vessels near the skin to dilate because of the Hunting Reaction and bring warm blood back to the skin). They've also been getting much easier now the weather is warmer and the cold shower isn't 6'C anymore. I've been waking up super late though, so I've mostly been skipping the breathing technique. Goal #3: Meditation: This still hasn't become a habit. I think I need to set a specific time of the day to do it... Maybe if I woke up earlier it might help.... Goal #4: Productivity: Mostly I've been waiting for various clients to give me work, so I haven't had much essential work to do. Instead I've been using that time to tidy up a load of loose ends, things on my to-do list from 5 months ago, etc. and its been nice to finally clear a lot of that backlog I've also written a few detailed articles for my blogs, which I wouldn't have had the time to otherwise: On my gamification/productivity track I've actually removed the productive goal entirely because I found I spent too long deciding what tasks I was going to do that day, and often new things would appear so I would change focus anyway. Maybe I should add a "sleep before time T" goal in there too though... at the moment I'm sleeping after 02:00 and having breakfast after 12:00, which is kinda ruining my "morning" routine!

Actually I didn't take many photos this year! In many places I was focusing on work and projects and community, rather than actual exploring. Which makes sense in context but I understand might sound a little strange. The place where I found the most exciting new stuff the last 12 months was actually Lisbon! For a place that I expected to be similar to e.g. England and Spain, it had a lot to entertain me February 16/17 is the opposite end of the year for me, so close enough! I've only actually met one person IRL born the same day as me, and that was through Nerd Fitness 😛 I'd like to think I've gotten less soft, but I think it's entirely just the weather having gotten much warmer - it's beautiful now! I know right! Recently with some friends we were tracking our time with an app, into categories such as [eating], [sleep], [client work], etc., and someone had the idea to include a [wtf] category for that time where you're not really doing anything... and it was amazing how much of my time (hours per day) that went into that Hey Talvi! Welcome back! I did check last week whether you had been active here ahah. Thanks - the website under my name is doing really well the last month or so, I'm amazed how much traffic it has been getting, and a few people have reached out to me with various ideas through it.

Despite all that time playing with my gymnastics rings I still haven't even made it to the tin cross... 😛 One day!

For the sleeping part, I did use an app that measures when you move around during the night and tells you how many hours of deep sleep, light sleep etc. you had. You just put it under your sheet but on your mattress to it feels you move. It did seem legit - and you got a pretty graph and stats every morning. The results seemed to line up with reality, and once I even tested it by leaving it on my cupboard, and it just thought i'd fallen into an incredibly deep sleep for 7 hours 😛 I forget the name of the app but that was in 2016 so I'm sure there are multiple good free and paid alternatives by now.

Ahh and there was me thinking the Dutch word were hijfkawzurgijkzwx. Dutch always looks so funny to me

😮 How did you even get up from there? First time I played it it was called Mafia, so we had detectives and police etc. I prefer the fantasy themed ones like Werewolves though! Searching for housemates in 2020 must be a tougher deal than in previous years 😕 "So how many times do you wash your hands each day?"