Bringing you up to speed pt. 2

The first thing I mentioned was the walk I took yesterday.
I made an hourly-planner the other day, it just says things like "7:00 alarm goes off, 7:30 shower...", it doesn't plan my every move, but has the things I should be doing every day. I made another sheet with little habits to do or to avoid, like "cut sugar, no eating after 7pm, spend 20mins outside daily" and with that in mind, I went out walking for about an hour yesterday evening.

There's a main road and bus-stop by my window, so I can't tell you how lovely it was to go to the recreational park down the road, and walk by the canal. I was a couple of minutes from that road the whole time, but I could have been in the country for all the difference it made! I saw squirrels chilling by trees, people playing with their dogs, canal-boats smoking and one person played 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' from theirs as they worked (as you do, right).

Now, it's not as though I never walk by that canal, or see squirrels, but having gone out with the aim of walking and doing nothing else was one of the most liberating things I've ever done! Dedicating an activity to not getting anything done made me feel like I had a lot of free time rather than always having deadlines to work towards, and although I wasn't trying to accomplish anything, I could feel the wheels turning in my mind (see: Gaston), and somehow felt more productive than being at my desk. It was also great to turn off into a road I'd never gone down before and have to work my way back, it was new, and turned off the 'autopilot' function that my legs use to get to shops and lectures.

We were designed to think best whilst walking, and this one mini-adventure has shown me that I want to be out more, and that 'out' is not just that place between my front-door and wherever I'm trying to be.
For more on the awesome and terrifying power of walking, see Pursuit Predation (scary stuff).

And that's you up to speed! I wrote this up and will get back to arranging music for a while, and look over other blogs and stuff in the meanwhile for more ideas and motivation.

Bringing you up to speed

I've been sticking to my new sleeping-pattern for about two weeks now, and I think it's time to review the changes I've noticed.

Normally, I get up after 11am, brush my teeth and shower, and set up camp at my desk with tea and biscuits (I ate lots of biscuits to keep me going until my single meal in the evening). I've been learning Spanish recently, so I would spend some time on Memrise learning new words every day, and I Skype a Spanish guy a couple of times a week. I spent the rest of each day making tea and killing time, feeling bored but unwilling to admit defeat and do research for my dissertation - or anything productive - but still not wanting to go to bed until I was too tired to carry-on with whatever I wasn't doing.

Now, my alarm clock gets me awake by 7.30am, and out of bed by 8, I shower and brush my teeth, then set up camp at my desk, this time without biscuits or sugar in my black tea (got to watch-out for my teeth) and toast with butter and marmalade. I spend less time learning new Spanish words, but still go over the ones I know, and I'm looking more into grammar at the mo'.
Since term has started finally, things are kicking into gear and I've spent the last few days arranging music for the Student Orchestra I'm conducting this year, it's very time-consuming but I'm powering through. I've also finally started putting thoughts into words about my dissertation and have written down a plan of action to take to my project supervisor next week.
The day is generally more productive, and I get ready for bed around 10pm, then read for twenty minutes and go to bed, feeling good in knowing I'll be up early in the morning.

My day is already looking a lot healthier as I've cut out a lot of time-wasting activity (see: Youtube, Steam), and I'm more motivated to make changes in my routine, which felt like a hassle before. I'm having less sugar than before, and will start brushing my teeth after toast. I feel ready to just sit down and do some work, but need to be going by a deadline, with dedicated time for breaks to stop me switching tabs and getting distracted. I also need to stop bringing my laptop to bed after reading, very naughty!

First Steps in Motivation and Willpower

I got back from a walk yesterday, and made the decision whilst out that I should start a blog to track my thoughts and be able to look back in the future.

The purpose of this blog will be to track my journey into transforming myself into a motivated and productive person, in a battle against myself.

I'm 21 right now, but feel unenthusiastic about getting my hands dirty, in any sense, and find myself spending a lot of time in my room in the house I rent with some students I know, trying to pass the time in a very passive way unless I'm out with people at the pub or just chilling with them.
So I'm young, I have my whole life ahead of me, and despite being in my final year of education, I have a lot of free time, so I wonder 'why aren't I doing more?'.

Once every few weeks I have to get up before seven for...a thing (see: Paid Medical Trials) and usually get back before everyone else has woken up. Usually I also do a food shop on the way back, and it's a strange feeling having been up and active for a few hours when everyone you know hasn't stirred yet. But it's a really good feeling. I felt like doing things. The kind of things that you could do and then feel justified in sitting around all day, like going for a run, or in my case, going somewhere to practise my singing and piano playing.

So, about two weeks ago I tried going to bed three hours earlier than usual (from around 1:30am to 10:30pm) so I could be up at 7:30 am (not the usual post 11am (come on, I'm a student! Ahem.)).
I couldn't sleep for a couple of hours on the first night, but still struggled out of bed in the morning, and adjusted almost immediately to this shift, so I now make it to bed on time most nights (got to allow for a pub night or two).

More to follow!