Eirlys: Time for Wellbeing

[Eirlys]

1. Decluttering

 

My MIT (Most Important Thing) at present is to create space so that I have time and energy to spend on the things that matter most to me.  So this month I aim to:

 

a - advance the decluttering in the spare bedroom, 

b - organise all my cupboards downstairs, this includes: food cupboards (kitchen), under-sink cupboard (kitchen), non-food storage cupboards (kitchen), bathroom cupboards, bathroom-stuff drawers (lounge), understairs cupboard

c - organise all my paperwork: file away required paperwork, remove unnecessary paperwork

d - get my email & information inflows under control (began unsubscribing from email things last week, will also want to trim down my bloglovin' feed too)

 

2. Heal Hands

 

I'm probably washing my hands over 50 times a day, and they're in a bad state at the moment as well as looking 20 years older than the rest of me (sob).  To counter-act this I want to:

 

a - moisturise before bed every night

b - track every time I wash my hands & the reason(s) why

c - evaluate whether I can eliminate this reason for handwashing or find an alternative solution (e.g. gloves, using handwipes instead)

 

3. Heal Body

 

For years I've known I should be taking my "brown inhaler" and never have done, as my asthma has been relatively minimal.  However, since baby has started at nursery, things have been going downhill.  Last week I ended up at a walk-in doctor's surgery barely able to breathe and wracked in muscular pain around my ribs due to the constant coughing/sneezing.  A high dose of steroid tablets immediately relieved the problem and now I am wondering why I didn't start taking my inhaler months ago.  Anyhoo, time is good now.

 

a - take brown inhaler twice a day

 

Baby and I also need to up our vitamin doses to fight off these constant infections.  

 

Pre-prep: order some vitamin drops I can mix into baby's breakfast cereal

 

b - give baby daily vitamin drops at breakfast

c - take daily vitamin tablet at breakfast (after taking 8 steroid tablets a day at breakfast for 5 days, I feel I can now manage the 1 vitamin tablet required)

 

4. May Mini Habit

 

Last month I set out a mini-habit challenge to take my yoga mat out of the wardrobe every evening and put it on the floor.  Evidently I set the bar too high as I did not do this once.  So now I am making it even easier to do:

 

a - open wardrobe door fully and touch yoga mat

 

5. Overall Wellbeing

 

I need to build in "rest/recharge time" into my weekly routine, as it's foolish to continue to attempt to plough on at any cost trying to get stuff done every night without a break.  I've been doing that now for 5 months and my health has really suffered for it.

 

a - Figure out how & when to best rest

b - Think of fun activities to do while baby sleeps upstairs

 

I also need to make sure I'm eating as well as I can.  To this end, my short-term plan is:

 

c - Buy ready-made healthy foods and fruit snacks

d - Don't buy any more crisps 

e - Don't buy any more chocolate

 

 

That's a lot of stuff, but if I do even 40% of this I'm sure I'll be feeling a heck of a lot better!  Here's to a healthy May

[Leimanu]

I adore you mini-challenge!

 

You're so good with cleaning the clutter.  Your space is going to be amazing!

[Eirlys]

On 5/5/2016 at 10:20 PM, Leimanu said:

I adore you mini-challenge!

 

You're so good with cleaning the clutter.  Your space is going to be amazing!

 

Thanks Leimanu!

 

I used to have a well-earned reputation as a very messy person.  It's quite liberating to journey to the other extreme

 

I managed to clear out about 20 litres of paper on Thu & Fri (either recycled or shredded), my folders are much better organised and pruned of unnecessary docs e.g. dental insurance receipts from 2011, and the paper is removed from almost all the surfaces in my bedroom barring a few things on the desk (and out of the clothes drawers!).  A couple more hours filing and paperwork should be done

[Slayer]

These are awesome challenges. Rest and self-care are so important! As far as the decluttering, how are you feeling on your resources? I ask because I'm weirdly obsessive about reading minimalism blogs and books, so I have tons of recommendations if you want any! Either way, more power to you!

[Leimanu]

17 hours ago, chloehawker said:

These are awesome challenges. Rest and self-care are so important! As far as the decluttering, how are you feeling on your resources? I ask because I'm weirdly obsessive about reading minimalism blogs and books, so I have tons of recommendations if you want any! Either way, more power to you!

 

Share away

[Slayer]

Books:

• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
• The More of Less by Joshua Becker
• More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger (more about generosity, but very attached to minimalism)

Blogs:

• The Minimalists (especially this and this)
• Zen Habits (decluttering)
• Minimal Millennial
• Becoming Minimalist
• Miss Minimalist

Podcasts:

• The Minimalists Podcast
• The Mind Palace
• The Slow Home Podcast

[Leimanu]

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks!

[Slayer]

3 minutes ago, Leimanu said:

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks!

My pleasure!

[Slayer]

I forgot an important one! If you're looking to downsize your wardrobe, Project 333 from Be More With Less is awesome!

[Leimanu]

I've really been enjoying The Minimalists podcast

[Eirlys]

On 5/11/2016 at 0:22 AM, Slayer said:

Books:

• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
• The More of Less by Joshua Becker
• More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger (more about generosity, but very attached to minimalism)

Blogs:

• The Minimalists (especially this and this)
• Zen Habits (decluttering)
• Minimal Millennial
• Becoming Minimalist
• Miss Minimalist

Podcasts:

• The Minimalists Podcast
• The Mind Palace
• The Slow Home Podcast

 

Hi Leimanu & Slayer

 

Thanks for stopping by & your suggestions.  Slayer, like you I am also heavily into productivity & minimalist readings, I tend to binge-read these I recently acquired The More of Less by Joshua Becker but I found it a bit disappointing.  I think his blog is better.

 

I also liked "yin feng shui" by Tess Whitehurst as part of decluttering inspiration.  I'm not into feng shui but feel there are certainly things that can be learnt from identifying stagnant areas of the house.

 

My bedroom is back to tidy now with the paperwork removed, so just one messy room left in the house.  However I'm looking to reduce other areas further and plan on tackling my bookshelf which is crammed with books (a little fantasy fiction, lots of self-help books, vegetarian/vegan recipe books & how to write stories books).  Many of these books I haven't opened in ten years.  

 

My plan is to skim-read through the self-help books to identify the core ones I want to absolutely keep, and then flog/donate the rest.  I'm currently up to chapter 10 of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Overcoming Procrastination.  Reading this makes me feel good as I've obviously come a long way in the last 10+ years!

 

On the mini-habits, so far I've been able to maintain taking my inhaler twice a day & moisturising my hands before bedtime.  

 

So far haven't got anywhere near vitamins and occasionally I've opened the wardrobe doors before bedtime but often I remember it when I'm up in my bedroom and no intention of going downstairs again.  On those occasion I've done a few stretches up against the bedroom wall which for me is good enough, but I evidently have some work to do to figure out what works for me, routine-wise.

 

I have not been doing so well on avoiding eating crisps & chocolate.  I've also been ill for like the fortieth time this year.  Give me strength!

[Eirlys]

A quick update... in reverse chronology:

 

5. Have decided to ditch goal #5 - options d & e require a larger pot of willpower than I currently possess.

One little mantra I have going is "reduce, reduce!" including the number of decisions I need to make a day, so that in future I will have the energy to take on this goal with gusto.

 

4. Am changing goal #4 to be: spend 10 seconds stretching every night.  This is proving to be a success, as I kept forgetting to do the whole cupboard door thing until I was upstairs in my bedroom and didn't fancy going downstairs to do that.

 

3. Goal #3 - will also park the vitamin thing for now.  Brown inhaler consumption is happening, though.  Hooray!  Only 20 or 30 years after I should have been doing it!

 

2. Have been moisturising hands nightly and they look in much better shape.  I've cut down on hand washing although it's still far too high.  Touching the outside bins really bothers me.  Today I took an anti-bacterial wipe (or 4) to them but I think I need to have another go or get some bleach on there (and bleach is not something I currently possess) to get the bin to a happy standard.  

 

My keys also need a good clean.

 

1. Sub-goal d is doing well.  I have got the email inbox in-flows back to an acceptable level, and also reduced the number of unread messages from thousands down to about 65.

 

Sub-goal c is in progress.  I had hoped to finish that today (along with sub-goal b ) however I decided to eat the frog and tackle some challenging admin work instead.  Am looking forward to tidying up properly in a couple of days at my next opportunity! (can't do it when baby is around during the day/when I am at work.. doesn't leave much time!)

 

Sub-goal a is awaiting further progress, pending time on my part!

 

 

In other matters, I keep falling asleep while putting baby to bed and then staggering to my own bed and falling asleep immediately, so I'm now looking to shift bedtime massively forward.  This evening baby finally went to sleep at 8:30, I was ready for bed at 9, this update has eaten a lot into the rest of the time!

 

I've also decided to do some:

• head-work - turn my victim-led thinking into a type of thinking for which I accept responsibility for the position I am in.
• mindful work - look to correct my posture in a mindful way while I am pushing the pushchair around, or any time I remember while with baby

 

Have been binge-reading more self-help books.  I am currently going through the Miracle Morning, as recommended by another druid.

[Eirlys]

125 lbs on the scales this morning. Only 3 more and then in theory I'm at my ideal weight. So untoned though that I still look pregnant around the middle!

[Eirlys]

After I spent all my spare time (baby was elsewhere) cleaning and tidying today, and still haven't got anywhere near the nitty gritty of the decluttering I want to achieve, I think I'm going to hire a cleaner to do my house on a regular basis!

 

This is a big thing for me, as I'm nervous about having a stranger with access to my property/possessions.

 

I did manage to get some significant progress done downstairs rejigging the house layout - we are down to one playpen now and I have halved its size.  This has freed up a large area next to the kitchen.  Baby was initially puzzled by the change upon his return.

 

The downstairs is sooooo close to being done now.  

 

However, my spare bedroom is back to being a clutter mine, and explorer baby isn't allowed in there now!

[Leimanu]

If you have the means for a house cleaner, I say go for it.  It's one less responsibility in a world of tiny little responsibilities, and you have plenty.  It'll free up a little time and energy for decluttering, so instead of having to tidy up first and then declutter, you can get right to it.

 

You can always just try it for a short time, too.  Maybe just for the time to finish up your declutter/minimizing project.

[Eirlys]

12 hours ago, Leimanu said:

If you have the means for a house cleaner, I say go for it.  It's one less responsibility in a world of tiny little responsibilities, and you have plenty.  It'll free up a little time and energy for decluttering, so instead of having to tidy up first and then declutter, you can get right to it.

 

You can always just try it for a short time, too.  Maybe just for the time to finish up your declutter/minimizing project.

 

Heh, I had been thinking the other way round "once I've finished decluttering I'll get a cleaner in"... but you're right, there's no logical reason I couldn't search out one earlier.  Especially as this decluttering malarky is really dragging on!

 

Thanks for the idea

 

--

 

The crepitus in my knee has suddenly become incredibly irritating.  My knee is now clicking on EVERY step I take upwards.  Given that I am up & down the stairs in my house (especially as baby likes to climb them repeatedly) this is quickly bothering me.

 

Not sure what solution is, nor what has brought it on!  Hopefully not the stretching thing I'd only just started to do! 

 

--

 

Today I managed to stay aware of my posture while walking for longer than usual.  And keeping the chin up.  It's so hard to sustain but I'm hoping muscle memory will kick in after a while!

[Eirlys]

On 5/10/2016 at 6:02 PM, Slayer said:

These are awesome challenges. Rest and self-care are so important! As far as the decluttering, how are you feeling on your resources? I ask because I'm weirdly obsessive about reading minimalism blogs and books, so I have tons of recommendations if you want any! Either way, more power to you!

 

Sorry I never replied to this, Slayer!  Thanks for your support  It's great to have the backing of a like-minded druid.  And I appreciated you sharing your links too.

[Dreamspin]

Hi, I love your challenge! Especially the mini-challenge. Meditation seems difficult for me to stick to, so maybe next time around I'll give myself points for sitting cross-legged for five seconds. :-)

[Eirlys]

10 hours ago, Dreamspin said:

Hi, I love your challenge! Especially the mini-challenge. Meditation seems difficult for me to stick to, so maybe next time around I'll give myself points for sitting cross-legged for five seconds. :-)

 

You never know, it could be surprisingly effective!

 

For some reason, the 10 seconds of stretching in my bedroom before I go to bed has proved to be a great success and I have been doing several minutes of stretching each time before bed.

 

I'll be adding in meditation to my routine at some point so I may steal your idea for that, lol

 

--

 

Today at work I have started tracking a lot of different info in some google docs spreadsheets.  One of them is tracking my cravings and I have been amazed by what I have learned already!

 

For example, I assumed I kept visiting news websites to get some form of stimulation, distraction, entertainment, information etc.  Instead I'm finding I am generally minded to visit them because I have just completed a task and: here's the key - don't know what to do next! 

 

Fortunately, it seems I am relatively easily able to resist their call at the moment.  I'm guessing that's because the Reward pay-off is relatively low, stories that really interest me are rare.

[Eirlys]

2016 Challenge Review

 

I thought it would be interesting/useful to see where I am with the challenge goals I have set in previous challenges this year.

 

January 2016

 

1. Eat healthier

• My breakfast is still good
• Evening meals are ok although not super-healthy.  Sometimes I don't eat in the evening at all, because I am too tired.  But I think not having a final meal of the day is quite a reasonable idea, all in all.

2. Improve bedtime routine

• I claim a win on this one!  At least, I tidy the house & wash the dishes after putting baby to bed by default now.

3. Start using bedtime sling

• Haven't used it for months  Should revisit this, otherwise it's an expensive mistake.

4. Sort house move

• My aim to have this done by the end of Jan was wildly optimistic.  I still have one whole room to sort now at the end of May.  However, I've done all the things on this list.

5. Keep on top of solicitor requests

• I have been doing, and guess what, she sent me a whole bunch more things to do just today (boo-hoo).  At some point, everything will be resolved.  I look forward to that day!

 

February 2016

 

1. Improve diet

• Joint meal plan still hasn't happened, although I opened some cookery books last night as I was thinking about this.  I need to get the landlord to sort out the broken oven before I can move on fully here.
• I still am stress-snacking far too much.

2. Exercise

• Kind of redundant one as baby is now at nursery rather than with me.  

3. Posture

• Standing up straight when following baby around - I am starting to thiiiiink about doing this one again, and being more mindful of my posture when with him.  But it's hard

4. Bedtime routine

• Basically, sorted

5. Forgiveness

• still on my to-do list, still not started

6. Enjoy time with baby

• no mobile phone during meal times - not sure on this one as his grandparents keep facetiming us during his dinner.  However, I think that I have managed to achieve what I was looking for, which was not to keep checking e.g. email, websites when sat in front of him
• read together every day - we definitely do!

6a. Deactivate facebook account

• achieved!!

7. Tidying

• I had a massive massive list of to-do items as part of this task.  While I have made big progress, quite a number of these are still outstanding!  I look forward to having a nice block of time to plough through these.  Between routine housework and my solicitor's requests, carving out this time is hard.

 

March 2016

 

1. Get stuff out

• This was really premature.  I have got rid of cardboard boxes, posted stuff to charity, and gotten my father to remove quite a few items that he'll get someone else to sell on ebay.  However, I still haven't made any progress on disposing quite a few things I had specifically in mind on this day.

2. A clutter-free, clean and tidy house

• vacuuming & dusting/cleaning regularly - am doing
• unpacking goods and learning how to use them - have unpacked & using toothbrush, but not read the manual or even opened the germ killer UV thing.  Oven has broken

3. Earlier to bed

• Apart from a couple of exceptions, I am doing much better with this.  However, that is partly because I have been collapsing with tiredness as soon as I've put baby to bed recently.

4. Use sling regularly

• total fail here

5. Mindfulness: be present when it matters

• I am getting a little better with this, but it's hard to stop mind racing off and thinking about other things in the future/past

 

April 2016

 

1. House beautifying

• I haven't managed to make much extra progress on any of the listed items, and the spare bedroom is now overrun with clutter again.  However, the rest of the house is looking in very good shape.

2. Mini habits

• recording tidying times - did only for a few times, but they were roughly equivalent each time.  As I'm managing to get this done a lot earlier in the evening I am happy overall
• speak words of thanks at end of each day - I tend to forget this, but when I remember, I do this
• lay out yoga mat with rolled up towel - I now have a replacement mini habit which is achieving the desired effect that this was supposed to achieve
• bring notebook & pen with me on work commute - I demonstrated that I could use tablet computer to write successfully on commute.  However since the challenge has finished I have not done this since.  Partly because I am not sure what direction I want to take with my life.
• turn off television when I come downstairs - aside from a few exceptions, I am generally doing well with this.

3. Redefining achievement

• this was helpful

4. Shoring up the small things

• this was about clearing a massive list of minor to-do items.  I never got around to this as too many other things (particularly illness) got in the way.  I hope to get some time to chip away at these soon, when I am taking a couple of days off work.

5. Food

• using oven & slow cooker - still nowhere near.  Landlord has said he will get oven replaced but I've not heard from him about it in a while.

 

 

 

[Eirlys]

So I'm kinda on "holiday" at the moment... although looking after a 1 y/o who has definite ideas about what he wants yet is unable to communicate them in any form (except a level of frustration when his expectations are not met) is not 100% relaxing   However I get a couple of days to myself next week (fingers crossed) where I am looking to make major inroads on my decluttering.

 

I am loving my house downstairs this evening... it's clean and tidy, and after all the decluttering it's spacious and relaxing too.  I feel happy when I'm down there & so proud of all my efforts!  Plus I feel very organised as well.  Probably because I am   Which is a massive turnaround from 10 years ago

 

There is still a little way to go with the organising/tidying of cupboards downstairs and a couple of other things but nothing that interferes with my mental wellbeing now!

 

 

My routines are going well.  In the last couple of weeks I have managed to incorporate: inhaler taking, hand moisturising & stretching into a daily routine; on top of my work to bring forward nightly household tidying so that I can go to bed earlier, and it's worked!  Further down the line I hope to spend my evenings doing stuff like guided meditation, journaling and maybe even yoga and stuff.

 

 

Plus, I may soon have a job offer.  Watch this space - it's for a dream company/job so I am super-excited!!

 

Nice to finally get some light after a long dark tunnel.

[Leimanu]

I really hope you get the happy job.  Isn't that light at the end such a relief?

[Eirlys]

Thanks Leimanu.. still waiting to hear on the job front.  Fingers crossed!  I have an interview with someone else today, as I don't want to put all eggs in one basket.

 

I've decided to pre-empt next month's challenge with a new way of doing things.  I think SMART goals aren't all that.  It's kind of like Waterfall vs Agile project planning.  I've been reading a lot of self-help literature of late, and my best take-aways so far are:

• work out what you could do to make yourself 5% (or even 1%) better at X
• set yourself a really really low bar towards doing X using mini-habits
• work out where in your existing habit loop you can integrate X

My plan is to keep adding lots of 1% improvements as the challenge goes on in an agile way, rather than set lots of goals up front and then fail miserably at half of them each month.

 

I also found that I can nearly do a proper push-up - much to my surprise!  It must be because I am lifting an almost 10 kg (21 lb) baby many times during the day.  So I am doing the kneeling push-ups until I can build up my shoulder strength to go the whole hog

 

I have a few days off at home now which I hope to really blitz on the tidying/organising/decluttering front.  

 

p.s. oven is now fixed, and so is leaky roof.  Hooray!

[Eirlys]

Well.  While I have made progress to get healthier it hasn't been enough. For the last few days I've been suffering from a viral chest infection.  It's pretty horrible, I am coughing up lots of yellow phlegm & my lungs are burning from all the coughing.

 

Good thing I have a low bar for my mini habits, I can still manage 10 seconds of stretching tonight.

 

Sending healthy thoughts out to everyone!

[Eirlys]

Weigh in 6/6/16: 123.6 lbs

With my height this gives me a BMI of approx 21.6

In theory I'm 1.5 lbs away from goal weight.  I'm 39 lbs down from peak pregnancy weight.