Juliebarkley plays with time

[juliebarkley]

I have been back to work for three weeks now, and I am struggling mightily to manage my time while at home. My routines that I built up when I had full control of my days during my forced vacation have not been surviving the transition. The thing that worked for me the last time I had this problem was time blocking: I set up a recurring schedule breaking each day down roughly by hour and assigning each chunk to some category of task. It was pretty strict, but it kept me on track. I can be pretty sure of my work a week in advance, so I am going to try building something by hand every Sunday with my routines and other stuff I want to get done, and see how it goes. (tomorrow for the rest of zero week)

 

Other than that, I am going to continue working on the same things as last time: working out on workout days; daily walks, rolls, stretches, and maybe handstands; working towards a pullup out of a dead hang; and posting here daily (preferably on at least one person's challenge as well as my own).

[juliebarkley]

Starting stretch benchmarks:

Spoiler

 

Chinup:

     Start: I can do a full pullup from the base position with my knees on the ground with both pullup an chinup grip. From a dead hang, I can still not get myself up, though I can at least bend my arms a little.

Toe Touch:

     Start: 45cm. My hands are a little flatter than the first time though, so I suspect my measurement was off the first time.

V Sit and Reach:

     Start: 13cm.

Forward Splits:

     Start: 146cm left, 147cm right

Centre Splits:

     Start: 149cm

Trunk Rotation:

     Start: left 35cm, right 37cm; this is probably more accurate than the first time as I was not measuring myself. I still think this one is very hard to measure accurately.

Trunk Extension:

     Start: 48cm

Back Scratch:

     Start: right 11.5cm, left 4cm

Shoulder Rotation:

     Start: 77cm. However, I could not return to the front again. I don't remember if that was a requirement I put on my first measurement.

Straight Leg Raise:

     Start: left 83 cm, right 84 cm. Done with pointed toes both times. I am not certain that we are measuring from the same place as last time. This time we used the convenient crease that runs across the top of my feet to the ankle bones. The improvement seems about right.

Butterfly Stretch:

     Start: 6cm. As I said before, I don't think improvement in the heel-to-groin distance is anatomically possible. So I tried a new measurement: I kept my back straight, leaned forward, and measured nose-to-floor distance: 51 cm.

 

 

[Epsilonte]

Hi Julie!

 

Excited to follow your journey!

How are you measuring your splits? From toe to toe? (And how do you actually manage to measure this?) It's such a good idea to actually measure this, I always only took photos... xD

[juliebarkley]

1 hour ago, Epsilonte said:

Excited to follow your journey!

Thanks; lovely to have you!

 

1 hour ago, Epsilonte said:

How are you measuring your splits? From toe to toe? (And how do you actually manage to measure this?)

I'm following a NF challenge way after it originally started. The split measurements were the benchmarks for day 3. The front splits are heel to heel, and the centre split is inside foot to inside foot. I have a mostly willing teenage helper to do the actual measuring.

[WhiteGhost]

Quote

Juliebarkley plays with time

 

Here with a challenge when it is only halfway through week zero?  What is this chronomancy?  

 

 

[raptron]

⏲️

[juliebarkley]

16 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Here with a challenge when it is only halfway through week zero?  What is this chronomancy?  

 

11 hours ago, raptron said:

⏲️

Fits the theme, doesn't it?

 

I was not a good planner today, but to be fair I did not have a lot of unscheduled time. I got home, played a bit too long on Board Game Arena, did the day's exercise session, showered, ate, played D&D, read a bit, and then it was time for bed. Perhaps if I take my phone to work tomorrow, I can do some planning during my lunch break.

[Scaly Freak]

10 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

 

Fits the theme, doesn't it?

 

It does!

 

Excellent execution of the meta portion of your challenge.

[JuiceeTarget]

*Following*

That transition back to "normal" is going to be tough for me when it happens. I am getting used to this working from home stuff.

[juliebarkley]

12 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Excellent execution of the meta portion of your challenge.

*bows*

 

7 hours ago, GoodDoug said:

That transition back to "normal" is going to be tough for me when it happens. I am getting used to this working from home stuff.

I wish I could work from home. My son (14) runs a business on the side and taunts me with his freedom to make his own hours when I whine that I have to go to work. Is it wrong to be jealous of your own kid?

 

It is a good thing that I did not plan anything at work, because that plan would have been out the window within half an hour of being home. What actually happened was that I started to develop a migraine, then at our regular narrating time, my son began to argue about the finer details of his work schedule, things we have been over and should (in my mind at least) have been clear. Anyway, after an hour of back and forth I ended up in tears from frustration and pain from the migraine. It was not my finest moment. Then we had to do a challenging Arabic lesson. Now I am exhausted and still in pain so it is bedtime for me. I have accomplished nothing much today unfortunately.

 

Tomorrow should be exciting though. The Beavers are meeting in a park that is only 3km away, so we are going to have a nice walk there and back to check out the site and decide how best to keep a bunch of energetic 5 year olds physically distanced while also keeping them off the road and out of the river. It a lovely spot and I think there's a geocache there, so if it's warm perhaps we will have a last picnic of the year as well.

[WhiteGhost]

Ugh, that really sounds like a rough day.  I hope tomorrow is much better.

 

45 minutes ago, juliebarkley said:

My son (14)

The way you talk about him, I always assumed he was much older (18-21yo range).  He seems like a very mature and independent kid (even if he does get on your nerves)

[Scaly Freak]

10 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

 

The way you talk about him, I always assumed he was much older (18-21yo range).  He seems like a very mature and independent kid (even if he does get on your nerves)

 

I thought he was a lot older as well. Huh.

 

And please do remember that accomplishing things while migraine is not a challenge requirement. Unless "slow down and focus on self-care" counts among the things in question, that is.  

[juliebarkley]

On 9/11/2020 at 2:33 AM, WhiteGhost said:

The way you talk about him, I always assumed he was much older (18-21yo range).  He seems like a very mature and independent kid (even if he does get on your nerves)

 

14 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

I thought he was a lot older as well. Huh.

Really? I am sure I have mentioned his age at some point. Maybe not on my own thread though. I was just shy of 25 when he was born. How young do y'all think I got started?

 

He is indeed very mature and independent, and a lot of fun and all-round asset to the world. He is not shy to speak in his own defense if things don't seem fair, has a healthy tendency to question authority, and thinks for himself. He won't do/think things just because someone tells him to, because everyone else is, or because it will make people like him better. These are all wonderful qualities. But when it is your rules and authority being questioned and picked at for more than an hour, and you also possess the previously-mentioned qualities, things can get interesting. I was not the only one in tears from frustration during that argument. We are all good and I think we both understand the other's point of view much better.

 

The walk out to the park today was lovely. I saw 14 degrees on the weather forecast, panicked a little thinking that sounded really cold, and put on my warmest indoor clothes for the trip. Turns out that 14 in the sunshine is pretty warm with a jacket on. The space is perfect for the Beavers; we couldn't have asked for better.

 

I entered (during the time I blocked off for the purpose!) my temporary-till-? work schedule and fit my skeleton of recurring blocks around that, with time at the start and end of the day open for either overflow, emergencies, or just whatever I feel like. I did not have time to work out which recurring events from my routines I want to place in there. That'll have to be a tomorrow job. The only recurring item that I did manage to pick a time for and enter was my exercise routine, which is good because I had completely forgotten that today was an exercise day. So one day in and it is working already. Didn't get any rolls or stretching in, but it's a start at least.

[Bouchra]

Hi Julie

Wanted to check out what you're doing since you passed by my thread. You're quite the superwoman, it seems  Handling a teenager and juggling home, work, and self-care... I want to be you when I grow up hehe. Like you, I got started quite young by today's standards, as I had my daughter at 24.

I love that you have daily walks and stretches, I really need to start incorporating some more walks outside into my life... I work from home as I run my own business and it has been suffocating to stay inside most of the time due to quarantine. It doesn't help that there are no parks nearby and I don't drive yet, but I'll have to start looking for a workaround soon.

Good luck with the challenge!

[Scaly Freak]

11 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

Really? I am sure I have mentioned his age at some point. Maybe not on my own thread though. I was just shy of 25 when he was born. How young do y'all think I got started?

 

I simply assumed that you also were older than you apparently are. 😉 

[juliebarkley]

10 hours ago, Bouchra said:

Hi Julie

Wanted to check out what you're doing since you passed by my thread. You're quite the superwoman, it seems  Handling a teenager and juggling home, work, and self-care... I want to be you when I grow up hehe. Like you, I got started quite young by today's standards, as I had my daughter at 24.

I love that you have daily walks and stretches, I really need to start incorporating some more walks outside into my life... I work from home as I run my own business and it has been suffocating to stay inside most of the time due to quarantine. It doesn't help that there are no parks nearby and I don't drive yet, but I'll have to start looking for a workaround soon.

Good luck with the challenge!

Hello and welcome!

 

I certainly don't feel like a superwoman, lol. I feel like I barely have it together sometimes. We are all just doing the best we can.

 

Walks are a real boon to mental health for me. There is something about moving outdoors, hearing the birds and the rustling of the foliage - it is so grounding. It makes you realize how the world just goes on, and how little the things that you worry about really matter in the grand scheme of life. And it also gives me some vitamin D when I go out during the day, so there's that. Got to store it up for the long winter ahead!

 

39 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

I simply assumed that you also were older than you apparently are. 😉 

Well that's a first for me. Only recently have strangers stopped asking me about what I'm studying at university, and some people still assume that my son is my kid brother. Eventually my grey hair will start to give me away.

[Scaly Freak]

1 hour ago, juliebarkley said:

Well that's a first for me. Only recently have strangers stopped asking me about what I'm studying at university, and some people still assume that my son is my kid brother. Eventually my grey hair will start to give me away.

 

Proof that I have no idea what you look like!  

[juliebarkley]

Last night, my internet died a an hour before I sat down to post my update and showed no signs of coming back, so I watched Psycho instead. I got a walk and rolls done yesterday; no stretching. The time blocking was weird because I had one big project that took most of the day. But I did block in the walk and rolls, which is why they happened. It was really nice out, so I spent a good chunk of the afternoon hanging out on the lawn in the sun checking out the new threads and reading aloud.

 

Today I blocked out my day early on, and the blocks didn't tally perfectly with reality, but that's okay. I got exercise done (pistols are so damn hard) and, finally, a unit of stretching. I am still figuring out how to add my routine items into the blocks. I have my walk and post-walk routine in place, the prayers I was doing, maybe Duo/inbox/repairs, but the regular reading time takes longer and I'm not sure where to put it yet. I'll just have to keep trying things and see what works. (I feel like that last sentence is a summary of how life works, really.)

[Scaly Freak]

6 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I'll just have to keep trying things and see what works. (I feel like that last sentence is a summary of how life works, really.)

 

It most certainly is. It's also a good suggestion for how to get through most of life's challenges, now that I think about it. 

[Jupiter]

I'm a little late to the party, but following.  

[juliebarkley]

2 hours ago, Jupiter said:

I'm a little late to the party, but following. 

Never too late! (Actually we're only a few days into the challenge, so you're not the least bit late.)

 

I'm very glad that exercise day was yesterday, because I would be too tired to work out today, that's for sure. I just have a bit of stretching and maybe some scapular retractions or a few reps of being-in-a-dead-hang-and-not-moving-while-trying-to-pull-up.

 

Yesterday I looked at my giant pile of books and my deadline for finishing said pile, and realized I should probably get back to working on those. I worked on them last night, and plan to tonight as well. I also looked at the wall behind said giant pile of books and realized that it would be perfect for handstands when the world freezes over in a month or so. Extra motivation.

 

When I arrived at work, my supervisor greeted me with "So, there's been some changes...". My schedule for the rest of this week is now a bit up in the air, and I will very likely be working at a different location next week, exact hours/days unknown. Hopefully I get the confirmation tomorrow. This schedule fluidity is somewhat stressful, though it could easily be a whole lot worse. It is reminding me why I wanted to build a business for myself in the first place, while simultaneously making it really hard to schedule the time to do it. 🙄

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, juliebarkley said:

"So, there's been some changes..."

Sounds ominous

[Scaly Freak]

1 hour ago, juliebarkley said:

It is reminding me why I wanted to build a business for myself in the first place, while simultaneously making it really hard to schedule the time to do it. 🙄

 

That is very sucky. Hopefully the reminder provides incentive?

[juliebarkley]

34 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Sounds ominous

I knew it was probably coming sooner or later.

 

28 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

That is very sucky. Hopefully the reminder provides incentive?

Yes indeedy it does. Now to find a regular block to slot it into...

[raptron]

12 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I also looked at the wall behind said giant pile of books and realized that it would be perfect for handstands when the world freezes over in a month or so. Extra motivation.

Yeeeesss, handstand station! 

 

12 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

When I arrived at work, my supervisor greeted me with "So, there's been some changes...". My schedule for the rest of this week is now a bit up in the air, and I will very likely be working at a different location next week, exact hours/days unknown. Hopefully I get the confirmation tomorrow. This schedule fluidity is somewhat stressful, though it could easily be a whole lot worse. It is reminding me why I wanted to build a business for myself in the first place, while simultaneously making it really hard to schedule the time to do it. 🙄

Guh, that's tough.