juliebarkley

Laying groundwork by getting tools and making your environment better sounds like progress to me! What kind of breakfast are you hoping for, and what's holding you back? There could be a tool that would make that easier too (eg. my toaster makes awesome, easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs). There's an annual reading chitchat thread here, if that is your kind of thing.

Habits are back to their proper state. I even folded extra laundry. I think the habit that I missed yesterday is better for today. I regularly have either local D&D or local boardgaming, both of which involve leaving the house for something that is not work. It feels like an "event" in a way that coming back from work on my work Saturday just doesn't. So that habit is now: After I get home from D&D or board games, I will pay zakat, then I will smile big. It has been a day of both knitting, and playing too many board games as "breaks" from the knitting. This is largely because illusion knitting does not gift you with memorizable repeats, but instead ties you to the pattern, and therefore, to the computer. And scarves are really long. Really, really long.

Depending on how you feel about exercise, this part can be extra important. I like how you have a variety of things that you are interested in doing. Finding focus and clarity in terms of what you want out of life right now can certainly be part of it.

Cat relaxing: Cat singing along: (Rooting for possible kitty pics.)

Still quite tired. Habits were a bit lax. New habit didn't trigger because we picked up pizza on the way home, and by the time we were done that, I was distracted and forgot. I need to rethink the trigger for that habit. It doesn't feel like a distinct moment I will remember. I did get my Werewolf game up, so yay for that.

Now that I can do! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So tired right now. And both of my shoulders hurt. Not sure what I did to the left one, but it's only gotten a little better in the last month or so. The right one is new. Hopefully just slept on it wrong. Since I have no brain energy right now but have a Werewolf game to plan, I will use one of two premade rolesets. I will decide which tomorrow. But for tonight, I will zone out to podcasts and knitting until I fall asleep (up to line 179!). This is all I can manage today.

Everything good except the audition habit (though I did do the thing, it was not due to the assigned trigger). Methinks I will need to change it. Work training from home allowed for 3.5 hours of nearly uninterrupted knitting. It's really neat to watch illusion knitting develop. I would include a picture if not for the outside chance the recipient could see. I feel I must apologize for how incredibly boring this and the last couple of challenges must be to follow. Many thanks to those who loyally follow my boring updates. I appreciate you. ❤️

Habit training is definitely working! I may end up reading more of the book than I originally intended. I keep finding myself using his own data to argue against him, just because it's fun. 😂 (I'm pro-public transit, anti-car culture, and especially anti-car-centric-urban-planning, so you'd think we'd agree on a lot, but something about this guy has pushed my buttons. It helps a lot that his data are extremely easy to reframe, sometimes using arguments he himself made a few paragraphs earlier.) And I am learning stuff for sure, just maybe not taking away exactly what he wants me to. And I'm having fun doing it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Still struggling with the timing of the audition-looking habit. I'll give it to the end of the week, but no longer, before I change it if it continues this way. Also struggling a bit with the choose-an-important-task-before-bed habit for the last few days, but this probably has a lot to do with the fact that I've been binging on crafting, so my important task is either the crafting, or something that keeps me from the crafting and so doesn't get thought about. Why did I start a project with 720 rows??

Here for whatever it turns out to be. This might work better though.

Habit review: After I fold and put away my scarf, I will take my dirty clothes to the laundry room, then I will celebrate by doing a big victory sign. After I decide to go to bed, I will pick one important task for the following day and highlight it, then I will celebrate by whispering "I got this". After I get out of my chair at home, I will do two pushups, then I will celebrate by doing a fist pump. After I get up to eat supper, I will choose a book to read and bring it with me, then I will celebrate by hugging it to my chest. After I put my clothes in the laundry basket, I will knock on my son's door, then I will celebrate by smiling big. These are all going well. The last one hasn't happened much just from the way schedules have been lining up, but I look around for him then, and have been making the effort to make conversation time. After my son goes to bed, I will select an audition, then I will give myself a tiny clap. After I do my Duolingo, I will read one person's challenge, then I will imagine that person smiling. After I pick up my computer after work on a Saturday, I will pay zakat, then I will smile big. The first one has been a bit rough, as I don't always know when he is going to bed. So in practice, I have been doing it after my NerdFitness posting or in the middle of the day. I'll give it a little longer to see if the trigger needs to be adjusted, because I think it is best as an evening thing for a variety of reasons. The second is going well; no complaints. The third hasn't triggered yet. I expect it will take a while to evaluate because it's a once-every-two-weeks thing. The habits where I remember to do the rewards are easier to remember and do than those where I have not remembered the reward. Rewards are worth the effort. Most of the habits I've set up are "starter step" habits; this is working well for me thus far, but a couple more of the "scaled back" style would be a good experiment.

It sounds like you gave it what you had.

I did not water my garden well at all yesterday, but it should be able to survive a very short drought, no? I watered a lot better today. Still waiting on some packages I was expecting, but I do have my yarn, so therefore my spare time for the next ... 780 rows of this pattern is taken care of. (I'm looking at that number and laughing that I had any hope of finishing in time for Christmas mail, but the recipient has been warned about it's probable lateness and doesn't seem to care.) My book selection is going a bit less well. I finished up Invisible Women (pretty good, but a few places where I was familiar with the subject I noticed that she either wasn't telling the whole story or was stretching a stat beyond what was justified. That makes me suspicious of the parts I didn't know anything about.) and have started Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars? Public Transit in the Age of Google, Uber, and Elon Musk. I had hopes for this one, but alas. I expect a political lean on this subject, which is fine. But I wasn't expecting an ideological manifesto. The author has a very narrow idea of what counts as public transportation, which I neither agree with nor think is realistic given the diversity in population size, geography, and infrastructure of the messy real world. He's anti-car, which kind of comes with the territory, but his version seems more extreme than usual, and he writes about "radical transport politics" and using transport to "fight capitalism" - or at least, the bogeyman version he subscribes to. Frankly, it feels like the author cares more about "being an activist" than about making sure that people, especially lower-income people, can get around for a reasonable price without owning or operating a private vehicle. So I won't be reading the whole book from start to finish. I feel like I can safely skim the Uber-is-of-the-devil chapter and the environment/climate change parts for instance, because I already know what they say. But there are some interesting-looking chapters and sections too. I don't know if I should count this as my December non-fic if I'm not going to read the whole thing though.

I was afraid this might happen when I read goal #1. Your child sounds an awful lot like my child.... Such a glorious feeling!

All habits going well. I am pleasantly surprised at how well this is going. The only thing I modified today was the reading a challenge goal, because I had to get my Duolingo done before midnight in order to preserve my streak, and D&D was going to go until 1am. So I read that challenge just now. I am at five snowflakes done, minus the finishing. Three to go. Then I knit like a madwoman, starting Monday.

Here, I'll help a little with a visual. This is the snowflake pattern I'm making for my coworkers this year. (Ignore the extra threads; I haven't done the finishing yet.) This is pretty much actual size. They make nice ornaments. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My first batch of habits are getting to be so automatic that I can't even remember what they are when I try to list them, but when I go back to the list, I realize I am indeed doing them all. Second two were successful as well. I haven't gotten to everybody (I just have a list of tabs and click in the list at random), but I feel so much less guilty now that I'm visiting around a bit. Got another snowflake done, with a third on the way. I need eight. My plan is to put on podcasts for the rest of the evening and see how many I can finish. Also made a super delicious beef stew with dumplings today. Must remember that excellent meals with long cooking times require advance planning, but are usually a lot less actual work. Checking my Golden Behaviours lists, I have a few one-off items, a few remaining that could be habits but require some thought, and some that would only be short-term habits. So I'll have to look into those tomorrow. But I do have one more seed to plant today" After I pick up my computer after work on a Saturday, I will pay zakat, then I will smile big. (This was an awkward trigger to choose, but I needed one that came every two weeks, and while I do not go on the computer right away when I get home from work on Saturday, it always happens eventually. I can always change the trigger if need be.)

Here's the new challenge! Much like the old challenge!

Found this on a different group. I like this list because some the categories have a neat personal twist to them. Makes it different from the other big lists out there.

I didn't do my "after my son goes to bed" habit as I got a bit confused about the time and caught up in something else that had a deadline. But I did read through a whole bunch of challenge threads and follow a few. Didn't really post though. My yarn delivery date is delayed, so must not waste my time this weekend. Complete My Tatting Project is my top goal for the next few days.

Yeah, that's hard. But the all-or-nothing mentality that you describe is going to hurt you if you do have to miss, because you'll feel like a failure. Is there a backup routine you could do at home, something you know you will be able to do, that you can sub in when cancelling out of the gym is the right choice? Seems like it would be better to do something than nothing, however small that something, and it would help keep the momentum up.

I hope it will grow into a lovely cottage garden. Welcome! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All's still well. (Hard to update when the update is always the same, and so dull. 😅) I forgot my reward for the challenge reading, but I read three! And I finished both of my November books before the end of November (just). Got home a bit early because the power went out and work sent us home. I was a little sad about that actually, because I had just sat down at the computer to put together a neat book advent calendar for the month, and I'm not in again till Tuesday, when it may be too late to start. Picked through a few important things, but have done only a little on the thing I picked out as the task of the day, making coworker gifts. (With all the knitting I have planned, the more I can get done before Friday, the better.)

If you can, it might help to squat past parallel. Parallel puts the most strain on the knee joint of any point in the squat, from what I understand. And/or, squat in front of a mirror and make sure your knees aren't drifting inwards.

Does it matter? Woo! Have you noticed any patterns in the days and times when you go to the gym, or bail? Or is there anything that could make it mentally easier to get out the door, like having your gym bag already packed and waiting in the car? I also frequently forget to eat and am too lazy to cook real food. It sounds like you eat a lot on the run; maybe having healthy snacks like jerky or trail mix to hand would help? Cool! This feels like a lot of hours for a brand new routine though.

I like this. Regular assessment without the temptation to obsess over today's numbers. Avoid, like minimize? Or avoid, like no can do?

Yes indeedy! I took notes, with an ASCII art illustration and everything. 😅 It's been pretty good so far. Not progressing as speedily as some of the examples in the book, but 1) I know myself well enough that I wasn't expecting to, and 2) it's not a contest. Thank you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All the old habits that triggered have been keeping along tickety boo. Both new ones activated too, more or less - I checked out some auditions, thought about how I want to filter, and looked at a few (none were any good though), read some non-challenge NF posts, and read the first posts of everyone's challenges in the current challenge as of right now and opened the interesting ones in tabs (but haven't read past that yet). Not perfectly on description, but good enough to qualify, I think. I also learned that I can order things into my local Walmart for free. I've been madly searching for a specific common yarn for a last-minute Christmas present. Nowhere within 60km has both colours I want in stock, and yarn is expensive to ship from online, which I mind less when I'm buying good yarn, but this is not that. Walmart can get it to my local store (which does not sell it) by Friday. I've never been a Walmart shopper - usually I either want things that are on the cheap dollar store or second-hand end of the scale or the good quality specialty end, rather than middling quality, plus I do like to support local businesses - but this yarn adventure is making me want to check out how many options this "free shipping to store" opens up for me.

Welcome back! The new end-of-year challenges just started up, so it's a great time to jump in there if you haven't already.