J3nn's Third Challenge - the GISHWHES edition

[J3NN]

GISHWHES is open for registration you guys! This challenge is going to be about taking more time for me, crossing through a mad list of to-do's and building my GISHWHES team. I haven't quite figure out all the details yet, but I couldn't wait to post, so I'm going to leave this little video here for you all to learn more about GISHWHES and then I'll get to thinking about the details for my challenge.

 

When I created the Mastermind group presentation, for my first challenge, I revealed that the GISHWHES experience inspired me to do more and how my Mastermind group was part of my commitment to myself to do more. Doing GISHWHES opened up my eyes to having fun and being the change I want to see in the world. Since it finished last August I haven't stopped talking about it or planning for this year. Registration has opened for this year's hunt and I've started a team. Partially inspired by the last Cat inspired challenge, and partially a spin on Misha's character Castiel we've named our team #teamCatSteel. The team is looking for members, if you're interested or want to learn more, you can check out this video. If you want to register, let me know and I'll send you an invitation. I promise I'll only inundate you with GISH stuff as much as any good nerd would!

 my

[Dagger]

Sounds like a fun and crazy time.  I can see why you'd want to do it again.

[Hymnusal]

 

This is on my bucket list! 0_0 tell me more about how to join in the awesome (feel free to pm me so we don't clog your challenge thread [emoji14] )

 

[fleaball]

Haven't read your post yet and I promise I'll get back to it, but I just had to come in and squee because GISHWHES. I haven't done it and I don't think I ever will but i thoroughly enjoy watching the insanity unfold. (I have 300 twitter followers and at least 275 are abandoned Orlando Jones accounts.)

[J3NN]

OK, now for the real challenge details, I'm trying to take it easy, so I'm minimizing grading but increasing tracking, and will specifically be looking for more self-care habits to show up in my tracker. Here's what I've got... since I feel conquered, I'm going to focus on conquering things instead of just being conquered.

 

Quests

1. Conquer my to do list

   1. Create a master task list in my BuJo/Asana

   2. Create a HIT (high intensity tasks) list of 3-6 tasks to do per week from master task list  and track in weekly spread in BuJo

No Grading

2. Conquer GISHWHES

   1. Recruit members for team by

      1. Sharing on Facebook  

      2. Sharing on Twitter

      3. Sharing on Instagram

   2. Post tips in Facebook group for Team Cat Steel

   3. Participate in the events shared by the Gish team

No grading

3. Conquer my self-care habits

   1. Stretch 4 times a week (16 points)

   2. Create a tracker in my bullet journal to track my self care habits.

      1. Points for every day updated (28 pts)

         1. In bed by 9:30

         2. Mood (colors)

         3. Headache

         4. Stomachache

         5. Muscle Pain

         6. Water (min 64 oz)

         7. Hunger

         8. Ate out

         9. Read

         10. Cycle

         11. Stretch

         12. Diffuser

         13. Workout

         14. Food Diary

         15. Watch TV

         16. Solo Lunch

         17. Mini-challenge

Grading

• A= 39/44

• B= 35/44

• C=30/44

• D= 26/44

So that's where I'm at. And apparently I'm bold... maybe that's how you start conquering things  And I can't brain to find a good gif.

 

[fleaball]

Looking good! Love the team name.

[J3NN]

My first day isn't off to the best start. Yesterday I sneezed, and that sneeze was the difference between being healthy and being on the verge of something yucky. I don't quite feel sick, but I don't quite feel not sick. I have super low energy, I have had congestion, and i just feel meh. So, I've done the things I Had to do today, but it's taken me all day. and I haven't gotten my tracker ready and so the one thing I said I'd do, isn't ready. I may just sit and veg with some tv and allow myself to make the tracker tomorrow and track today tomorrow... or maybe after I have dinner I'll get a second wind and actually feel like making my tracker. We'll see.

 

I have a two day training class over the next two days, my brain isn't thinking it can handle that right now, so I'm really trying to rest so I can make it through those two days. We'll see what happens I guess.

[Hymnusal]

1 hour ago, J3NN said:

My first day isn't off to the best start. Yesterday I sneezed, and that sneeze was the difference between being healthy and being on the verge of something yucky. I don't quite feel sick, but I don't quite feel not sick. I have super low energy, I have had congestion, and i just feel meh. So, I've done the things I Had to do today, but it's taken me all day. and I haven't gotten my tracker ready and so the one thing I said I'd do, isn't ready. I may just sit and veg with some tv and allow myself to make the tracker tomorrow and track today tomorrow... or maybe after I have dinner I'll get a second wind and actually feel like making my tracker. We'll see.

 

If you're feeling sick, then giving yourself the room to recover may be the smart thing to do. I hope you feel better soon!

[Dagger]

6 hours ago, Hymnusal said:

 

If you're feeling sick, then giving yourself the room to recover may be the smart thing to do. I hope you feel better soon!

+1

[Severine]

Booo for feeling sickish. The scavenger hunt looks crazy and fun. Once in high school I was part of a big scavenger hunt and one of the hardest items on the list was to get a transfer ticket from every single stop on the Bloor-Danforth subway line, each within 5 minutes of the previous one. There was a lot of frantic running around stations, but we did it   Won't ever get that Saturday afternoon back, lol.

[Hymnusal]

On 2017-04-24 at 4:17 PM, Severine said:

Once in high school I was part of a big scavenger hunt and one of the hardest items on the list was to get a transfer ticket from every single stop on the Bloor-Danforth subway line, each within 5 minutes of the previous one. There was a lot of frantic running around stations, but we did it   Won't ever get that Saturday afternoon back, lol.

 

Hehe, the madness that ensues with a good scavenger hunt is half of the fun!

 

I'll be signing up for GISHWHES tonight. It's on my bucketlist and I'm super excited to be on Team Cat Steel! YAY FOR CRAZY ADVENTURE!

[J3NN]

On 4/24/2017 at 0:17 PM, Severine said:

Won't ever get that Saturday afternoon back, lol.

And from my experience, wouldn't want to either, those are the kind of memories that make it easy to keep going when the going gets tough.

[J3NN]

3 hours ago, Hymnusal said:

I'll be signing up for GISHWHES tonight.

Yay! 

[J3NN]

I'm having one of those weeks where I am so off my game that I just want to cry. For no good reason, but it's there like a bubble in my chest waiting to explode. I'm going to vent about it, just to get it off my chest. You can skip it.

Spoiler

Monday was "stupid" training, day 1 of 2. I love learning, I'm an avid self-motivated learner. But I was dreading this class for some reason. When we got into it, the topic "Leading at the Speed of Trust" made me realize just how screwed up we are. Because I wasn't already stressed out enough about things at work. Now I have language to describe why it's messed up. Tuesday morning my hubby comes in and wakes me by saying "We need to take Stitch to the vet". My husband doesn't like doctors, not for him, not for the pets, not at all. So what's this, how bad is it? (PS Stitch is our cat) He has tremendous swelling on his throat, he's not energetic and it came up out of nowhere. Okay. I have day 2 of class what do you have at work? Skills lab. (he's a cOTa and the OT team provides training for the rest of the facility monthly). If he calls off, there's way more impact than if I call off. So me it is. Call the vet when the open, no appointments available, but I can walk in and wait. I get there a little after 8:30 and about 10:30 we're finally being seen.  They don't know what it is for sure, but they think he got in a fight with the other cats (we have three) and got a scratch and now has an infection. So pain meds and antibiotics it is. Bring him back in 48 hours for a check up. Oh, lovely, that's another day that will be screwed up. I did get some sort of productive work in the afternoon. But then I missed my gym session with the trainer. I just couldn't convince myself to go. 

 

So now it' Wednesday. It feels like Monday. The cat is the same, which I guess is better than being worse. The pain meds they gave us, only had one dose, not three like promised, so I have to go back today to get that squared away. I have to get my prescription refill for my migraine meds, but of course, I don't have refills left so I have to go through the Doctor first. I couldn't have remembered that a week or two ago? Apparently not. I have to go to the gym tonight, to make up last night, which means my session tomorrow with the trainer will come on the heals of a workout, which is always fun.  I have free time to get work done, but all the work I have to do is so overwhelming I don't even know where to start. I can't even find music that fits my mood to help make things better. I'm just really having a no good, very bad day/week. I think I'm dehydrated, this cold got my systems down, and I just need a kick in the butt.

Ok, I feel a little better, the pressure has alleviated some and the tears are further away. I caught up on my tracking which made me realize I'm totally dehydrated and I haven't been taking my vitamin, so today that will be my focus.

 

Look at that Kitty face, everything is good in the world with a face like that.

[Dagger]

Sorry you had such a tough beginning to your week. That kitty face is indeed the stuff of life.

[fleaball]

Your kitty is adorable. I'm sorry this week has been so chaotic.  

[Severine]

Ugh my sympathies on that really crappy series of misfortunes. Fingers crossed for a quick cat recovery and you feeling more rested and energetic soon. Venting is helpful! Please feel free to rant here whenever needed!!

[J3NN]

3 hours ago, Severine said:

Fingers crossed for a quick cat recovery and you feeling more rested and energetic soon.

Kitty looks much better tonight, thank goodness, I am feeling worse. I think it's just compounding. Bring on the weekend!

[J3NN]

Tonight on my drive home from work I was thinking, I do that. I don't know why the drive is so good for that, but sometimes I get from point a to point b after having a brilliant conversation with myself and don't remember the drive at all. Today was kind of like that. (not scary at all, I know)

 

I was thinking about daily battle logs. I've seen them mentioned, and I wonder if any of you guys are using them, how you use them, and if you find them the same or more or less meaningful than the four-week challenges. I don't really understand them because I haven't tried to understand them. I knew if I asked you guys could point me to some good examples, great instructions or even just give me your own thoughts.

 

I was also thinking about dirty dishes and dirty sinks. I think I need to make a challenge (next time, not in addition to this time) about dishes. I knew if I did, I would get great tips from you all about how you manage them. I find that all the healthy home cooking uses up practically all my dishes and I can never fit all my dishes in one load of the dishwasher. I also have handwash only dishes that my family insists on using, and those tend to sit around for days before someone (me) will clean them. I'd love to create a habit where the dishes get in the dishwasher nightly and that my counters, oven and microwave all get wiped down too. It's so easy to just let stuff slide and at some point, even though cleanliness is important, there are levels that become acceptable for your family that you would never allow a guest to see. Since I never have guests, it's really easy to just turn a blind eye.

 

All of this came about because my windshield is dirty. The inside of it. At Christmas we were visiting family and it snowed so the windows got all fogged up and the driver used a dust cloth to clear the windows and it left streaks. It's mostly on the passenger side. They're only visible at certain times, important times like when the sun is shining directly in and you are already blind from the bright light. I just realized that its the end of April. I keep telling myself I'm going to go out with Windex and a cloth and clean them. It's been four months and I still haven't done it. Why is that okay? So yeah, that's what led me to the dishes... and from that wondering about the battle log vs challenge. I'm not sure why I felt the  need to post in reverse order.

 

So there you go - this is what it sounds like in my head @fleaball

[fleaball]

When I first started I got the impression that battle logs were like, for super ongoing things where people would be tracking their progress for months and wanted a single place to keep their information. Like if you want to squat your bodyweight but right now can only do them with the bar, or are training for a half marathon but starting with c25k. I haven't dropped in on anyone's in a long time so I can't point you to any good examples. 

 

Like the challenges, I think there's a lot of "make it what you want it to be." I started my current one last summer when I needed a break from challenges but still wanted a thread. Had a list of a ton of health & fitness goals I was going to work toward (not at the same time). I didn't do a whole lot goal-wise. I threw them all out the window around Christmas, actually, and now it's sort of become more dedicated to mental health stuff? I think? I know there's one issue I try to only talk about there because it's a downer and I don't need it all over my challenge threads too. Obviously I talk about anxiety in my challenges but idk, sometimes there are things I want to keep out of that space? I don't care who reads it, I think I just need the separation of challenge thread for daily crap and battle log for heavier ongoing bullshit? I didn't plan it that way initially, it just happened. 

 

tl;dr if you have a thing you want to put in a battle log to keep track of your progress over a longer time than 4 weeks, that's probably a good idea. if you're cool with the shuffling every month and just saying "last month i got this far and I'm continuing from there" that's cool too.

[Severine]

I've thought on and off about doing a battle log for more long term stuff, because a lot of my fitness goals, realistically, are going to take a lot of time to do, and it might be nice not to have everything spread out over a million threads. And right now I'm trying to do some introspection and self-esteem repair, and similarly that'd be good to have grouped together.

 

Mostly I haven't done it yet because 

(a) it requires a non-zero amount of effort and I just haven't had the focus for it 

(b) I have self-doubting brain goblins telling me that nobody wants to read more of my nonsense, so who would keep up with two threads for one weirdo?

(c) I'm worried it'll be overwhelming to keep two threads updated and maybe I'll fail

 

But I think it's a good idea in theory. I'm just a hypocrite so by that I mostly mean I think it's a good idea for other people  

[fleaball]

3 minutes ago, Severine said:

(b) I have self-doubting brain goblins telling me that nobody wants to read more of my nonsense, so who would keep up with two threads for one weirdo?

please stab your brain goblins since you definitely keep up with two threads for at least one weirdo.

[Severine]

6 minutes ago, fleaball said:

please stab your brain goblins since you definitely keep up with two threads for at least one weirdo.

 

Yeah but you're the best kind of weirdo  

[fleaball]

3 minutes ago, Severine said:

 

Yeah but you're the best kind of weirdo  

I am rubber and you are glue etc.

[Dagger]

9 hours ago, J3NN said:

I was thinking about daily battle logs. I've seen them mentioned, and I wonder if any of you guys are using them, how you use them, and if you find them the same or more or less meaningful than the four-week challenges. I don't really understand them because I haven't tried to understand them. I knew if I asked you guys could point me to some good examples, great instructions or even just give me your own thoughts.

I started a battle log before I started challenges, because it was the middle of a challenge when I started to post on the forums. I am right now considering moving over to just using the battle log either after this challenge or the next one.

 

That is because I'll be traveling and my schedule and routine and such will change at odd dates and trying to fit my life into the challenge format won't work very well. It'll be easier to either set goals by month or per place I'm staying or something along those lines.

 

I think the battle logs first started as a workout log, aka a place to track your workouts and I know there are people who use them as that still (but I can't link to any because I don't follow them). I feel this is more common among warriors because weight lifting.

 

I also knew someone who did a 100 day challenge and did that as a battle log rather than spreading it over multiple challenges.

 

A battle log can be kind of whatever you want. Right now I use mine to store longer term achievements (click on the 2017 goals link in my signature to see that). Except for part of the first page, my battle log has some random reviews of months (until I tired of doing that) and then it has some long term tracking and as I said I'm thinking of completely moving to it soon. But it'll be an experiment, so who knows if it'll work.