Alanna's déjà vu challenge

[Dusk]

I'm so sorry to hear about your rats  sending many hugs. Take care of yourself in the coming days. 💜   

And good job on meeting your goals during zero week!

[ninjakitten]

Sounds like you had a very good week, despite everything going on. 💚 Also you're my non-snacking idol. That you can do it while writing your thesis is still a mystery to me, but I am thoroughly impressed.

[Alanna]

Week 1, Sunday

 

Sleep: 12:07 am (0/7 minutes early/late)

Exercise: none today

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: not a full work day, did keep cold turkey restrictions from 11 am onwards, though

 

Week 1, Monday

 

Sleep: 1:00 am (0/67 minutes early/late). No good excuse - I wanted to read my book.

Exercise: Went for a 10 minute walk, retreated due to the rain, and then went for a longer walk about 10 minutes later when the sun returned. There was also lightning, thunder, and hail this morning. The weather the last month has been really weird...

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: followed

 

[Harriet]

Looking good on the media and sweets fronts. Well done.

[Rookie]

Sorry to hear about the rat babies ❤️ You are doing right by them. "Better a week too early than a day too late" is also a saying in the horse community. Its so hard having to be the one to decide that. I am happy you are given this time to give them some extra loves and attentions.

[Alanna]

Week 1, Tuesday

 

Sleep: 1:17 am (0/144 minutes early/late). I'm going to make a bigger effort to go to bed on time tonight so I don't shift my sleep schedule back to late o'clock.

Exercise: Finally got a workout session in early in the week - pistol squat progression work, push-ups, and goblet squats. The single-leg rolls didn't feel nearly as strong today - not sure why, but I'll make sure I keep up my more strength oriented leg work too.

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: followed

[Alanna]

Why does academic writing take so long??

 

Week 1, Wednesday

 

Sleep: 12:01 am (0/145 minutes early/late) - seeing the cumulative minutes late greatly increase really motivated me to go to bed on time last night.

Exercise: Just got back from a walk, thankfully it is staying lighter later.

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: followed

 

Reporting for my last two goals should stay fairly boring since my sweets challenge just comes down to "don't have any in the house that I could eat" and the social media ban is "set Cold Turkey and don't look at my phone/unnecessary youtube videos." I do sometimes forget and type in banned sites, but CT quickly sets me straight.

 

I'm also using CT to help me get to sleep on time by banning most social media at 9:30 pm and NF at 11:00 pm. 

[ninjakitten]

6 hours ago, Alanna said:

Why does academic writing take so long??

 

But it's great you're taking your time! (I wrote my Master's thesis when I was really depressed and put it off so long that I effectively had... 8 weeks or so to finish everything and panic attacks. 😅 Do not recommend. Even though I somehow passed and it wasn't even that bad. But years later I'm still constantly thinking about how it could have been amazing instead.)

 

And you're even doing all that other stuff on the side! It honestly sounds like you're doing an awesome job!

[Alanna]

12 hours ago, ninjakitten said:

But it's great you're taking your time! (I wrote my Master's thesis when I was really depressed and put it off so long that I effectively had... 8 weeks or so to finish everything and panic attacks. 😅 Do not recommend. Even though I somehow passed and it wasn't even that bad. But years later I'm still constantly thinking about how it could have been amazing instead.)

 

 

I'm trying to submit in 2-3 weeks 😅. My problem was I spent too long faffing about with different possible analyses last year and I ended up with a bunch of half finished stories that needed to be wrapped up for my last research chapters.

 

Yesterday was just like... I need to clean up this figure. And then write a caption for it, which is long because there are five parts to the figure. And then I need to write the results section for it. And then I need to repeat that three more times before I can go to bed. I just counted and I have seven supplementary sections I need to make, too 🙄. The figures for those are made already, but I need to clean them up in Illustrator and write the captions plus a small bit of text saying what they show. 

 

Thank you, though - I'm just whinging! It doesn't help that my to do list has to be really specific so I don't forget small things I need to do and so I can stay focused from one task to the next - it feels miles long because there are so many small (and not so small) tasks. I need to accept that there will be things that I wish I could do better on, too. I'm sure your thesis was great - it got you your Master's after all  

 

 

[ninjakitten]

4 hours ago, Alanna said:

I need to accept that there will be things that I wish I could do better on, too. I'm sure your thesis was great - it got you your Master's after all

 

No need to try and save my enormous ego. 😅 I am mostly glad I just somehow made it. It was either do it in those eight weeks or fail the program. BUT it really wasn't all that good. The eight weeks included research. Not just the writing. 😂

 

Whinging about projects that take so long is absolutely normal though. Especially once you come close to the end and see all those areas where you could still do so much more. As I said, I'm not the role model here so it's not like I'm speaking from experience, but I got the feeling that without deadlines most papers would never see the light of day. You'd just have people working on the details till they retire. So just make the best of it. As I said, it sounds like you're doing a great job. 💚

[Alanna]

Week 1, Thursday

 

Sleep: Something like 1:30 (?) am (0/235 minutes early/late) - I was working really late and then my mind would not shut off

Exercise: Walk, got over 5k steps today

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: followed

[Harriet]

11 hours ago, Alanna said:

 

I need to clean up this figure. And then write a caption for it, which is long because there are five parts to the figure. And then I need to write the results section for it. And then I need to repeat that three more times before I can go to bed. I just counted and I have seven supplementary sections I need to make, too 🙄. The figures for those are made already, but I need to clean them up in Illustrator and write the captions plus a small bit of text saying what they show.

 

 

Arghh! But calm, calm. You can do it. It will come together and you will be unsure how it happened, but it will indeed have happened.

[Alanna]

5 hours ago, Harriet said:

 

Arghh! But calm, calm. You can do it. It will come together and you will be unsure how it happened, but it will indeed have happened.

 

Thank you - and the mysterious appearing thesis is probably accurate 😂. I'm not even stressed right now, just annoyed that it's all done in my head - why isn't it done on paper??

[Alanna]

Week 1, Friday

 

Sleep: I think 12:07 am? Something close to my bedtime, anyway. That would make 0/242 minutes early/late - not doing great this week, but it could be a lot worse...

Exercise: Nothing today - gave our rats some new enrichment (dig box with a mint plant) and spent the evening taking lots of photos of them.

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: followed

[ninjakitten]

5 hours ago, Alanna said:

Sleep: I think 12:07 am? Something close to my bedtime, anyway. That would make 0/242 minutes early/late - not doing great this week, but it could be a lot worse...

 

Nothing revolutionary here, but I have a reminder about 30 minutes before I intend to go to bed and it helps me a lot more than I ever anticipated. I guess it depends on why you go to bed later than planned. I just get really caught up in the things I'm doing and forget time, so even it's so simple, it helps me a lot.

 

What you wrote about your rats and building things for them reminded me so much about building things for my hamster back in the day. (A lot of the stuff being sold back then was truly horrible, so in a way it was almost required, but it was something I really loved about keeping them at the same time.) So I hope you got to make a few more great memories with your pets as well. 💚

[Mad Hatter]

On 5/14/2021 at 12:03 PM, Alanna said:

Thank you - and the mysterious appearing thesis is probably accurate 😂. I'm not even stressed right now, just annoyed that it's all done in my head - why isn't it done on paper??

How rude of it. 

[Alanna]

9 hours ago, ninjakitten said:

Nothing revolutionary here, but I have a reminder about 30 minutes before I intend to go to bed and it helps me a lot more than I ever anticipated. I guess it depends on why you go to bed later than planned. I just get really caught up in the things I'm doing and forget time, so even it's so simple, it helps me a lot.

 

 

Yeah, we used to have an Alexa alarm on for "time to get ready for bed" and we'd just turn it off and ignore it. I'm also aware of the time because I block certain websites on my laptop at 9:30 pm and 11 pm, so I get an alert for that. It's more that I feel like I don't have enough time to wind down and/or turn my brain off. One of my really late nights this week was because I was working until 12:30 am.

 

I'm not fussed about 7 minutes late, either, hence the non binary evaluation. 

 

9 hours ago, ninjakitten said:

What you wrote about your rats and building things for them reminded me so much about building things for my hamster back in the day. (A lot of the stuff being sold back then was truly horrible, so in a way it was almost required, but it was something I really loved about keeping them at the same time.) So I hope you got to make a few more great memories with your pets as well. 💚

 

Aw your hamster sounds really lucky. It's similar for rats, even now (with some pet shops even selling things marketed for rats that are dangerous for them), so a lot of what we use is homemade or repurposed (e.g., dog rope toys, parrot toys, a metal wine rack and bamboo stakes for climbing). There are some really good independent small businesses, though, for things like chew toys, hammocks, and wheels. Making different set ups for them for their cage and free roam and seeing them enjoy them has been one of my favourite parts of owning them.

 

3 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

How rude of it. 

 

I know I'm whinging, I'm just sick of the finicky little bits that take a while, in particular (that last 10% that takes 50%+ of the time). Feels too much like busy work.

 

By the way, I just read a quote from my book that reminded me of our earlier conversation about art: "I am an artist. I should thank you not to demean me by insisting my art must be trying to accomplish something. In fact, you shouldn't enjoy art. You should simply admit that it exists, then move on." The character was being a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I thought it might amuse you! 

 

 

[ninjakitten]

2 hours ago, Alanna said:

Aw your hamster sounds really lucky. It's similar for rats, even now (with some pet shops even selling things marketed for rats that are dangerous for them), so a lot of what we use is homemade or repurposed (e.g., dog rope toys, parrot toys, a metal wine rack and bamboo stakes for climbing). There are some really good independent small businesses, though, for things like chew toys, hammocks, and wheels. Making different set ups for them for their cage and free roam and seeing them enjoy them has been one of my favourite parts of owning them.

 

I should have known it would be similar for rats. What's sold in shops is ridiculous sometimes. Everything being plastic and not allowing for airflow and ridiculous things like hamster balls aside even. Like it is so hard to get a good hamster wheel. Most of them are too small, so their spine is bent while running. And they run for miles in those things every night. (I know why it's hard. The cages they're selling are too small as well, so they could never fit properly sized hamster wheels.) Or that they are sold as a kid's pet when they are active in the evening/at night and get super angry when woken up and tend to bite. I'll stop, I'm sure it's just preaching to the choir. It's just always so nice when people understand. 💚

[Alanna]

On 5/15/2021 at 5:25 PM, ninjakitten said:

I should have known it would be similar for rats. What's sold in shops is ridiculous sometimes. Everything being plastic and not allowing for airflow and ridiculous things like hamster balls aside even. Like it is so hard to get a good hamster wheel. Most of them are too small, so their spine is bent while running. And they run for miles in those things every night. (I know why it's hard. The cages they're selling are too small as well, so they could never fit properly sized hamster wheels.) Or that they are sold as a kid's pet when they are active in the evening/at night and get super angry when woken up and tend to bite. I'll stop, I'm sure it's just preaching to the choir. It's just always so nice when people understand. 💚

 

Feel free to vent - I understand the frustration! 

 

 

--------

 

Week 1, Saturday

 

Sleep: 12:40-something am? I'll say 0/290 minutes early/late.

Exercise: Short walk to catch some Swablu for pogo community day and an upper body workout (push-ups, inverted rows, and some holds/core work on my dip bars).

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: not a work day

 

 

Week 1 Recap

 

Sleep: About 290 minutes late and no early nights. I'm not mad about it - I'm really stressed right now and just not winding down when it's time for bed. It should get better in a few weeks on its own, and in the meantime as long as I survive and don't mess up my sleep schedule too badly, I'm not really motivated to do more.

Exercise: 2 strength training sessions, 4 walks if I'm counting correctly

Sweets: none 

Social media ban: followed

 

 

Week 2, Sunday

 

Sleep: Sometime a little before 1 am - we'll say 0/58 minutes early/late.

Exercise: None.

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: probably should have worked, but I'm tired, so not a work day

 

[ninjakitten]

On 5/16/2021 at 1:38 PM, Alanna said:

 

probably should have worked, but I'm tired, so not a work day

 

 

Sometimes that's better than having to edit everything you did the day before. 💚 Hope the stress won't get to you too much.

[Alanna]

Week 2 Recap

 

Sleep: Lost track, just going to call this week a lost cause and work on improving for the rest of the challenge (and acknowledging that everything might be a bit out of whack until I submit my thesis). 

Exercise: 1/2  strength training session (on Wednesday), 2/3 walks. The weather here has been super weird with rain and/or sleet almost every day, so I'm learning that I need to just go for a walk when the weather is nice. I was also extremely tired at the end of last week, so I accepted that I just needed the rest, too.

Sweets: none 

Social media ban: followed except for one brief check on reddit to see what people advised re: inline skate sizes for a particular brand

 

Got to bed on time last night, so this week is starting off better already.

[Alanna]

Week 3, Sunday

 

Sleep: About 11:45 pm (15/0 early/late)

Exercise: Walk

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: not a full work day

[ninjakitten]

I'm not sure if it will feel like this for you, but I am pretty sure I couldn't have done this all on the side while I'm about to finish... any kind of big project really. So I hope you're still proud of all the effort you put in working on your health goals (or however we can call what we're doing here). 💚

[Harriet]

14 hours ago, Alanna said:

Week 2 Recap

 

Sleep: Lost track, just going to call this week a lost cause and work on improving for the rest of the challenge (and acknowledging that everything might be a bit out of whack until I submit my thesis). 

Exercise: 1/2  strength training session (on Wednesday), 2/3 walks. The weather here has been super weird with rain and/or sleet almost every day, so I'm learning that I need to just go for a walk when the weather is nice. I was also extremely tired at the end of last week, so I accepted that I just needed the rest, too.

Sweets: none 

Social media ban: followed except for one brief check on reddit to see what people advised re: inline skate sizes for a particular brand

 

Got to bed on time last night, so this week is starting off better already.

 

 

Did you make any thesis progress? if so then the week is not a loss at all. I wish you great focus for this week!

[Mad Hatter]

On 5/16/2021 at 11:38 PM, Alanna said:

Sleep: About 290 minutes late and no early nights. I'm not mad about it - I'm really stressed right now and just not winding down when it's time for bed. It should get better in a few weeks on its own, and in the meantime as long as I survive and don't mess up my sleep schedule too badly, I'm not really motivated to do more.

You're doing fantastic as is by keeping up with anything other than your thesis, like exercise. My thesis writing time I did nothing other than writing, drinking coffee all day, then wine to wind down enough to sleep.  It was not a good time.