Systems
-
Bi-Yearly Wardrobe Check-Up Part 2
My four drawers contain: This is my drawer of sports clothes. I usually run four times and do a session of gym and pilates a week. My running-specific bottoms all have decent-sized pockets to carry my phone and fuelling on longer runs Hanging on a hook in our hallway: Running cap The next drawer down contains all my summer-specific stuff: The final drawer contains shoes: In the hallway cupboard: Easy/long run runners, runners for sessions, thongs, cute casual white leather runners. On the shelf under the bench at our front door: old runners for walking, going to the dog park At the back door: slides Heading to the op shop:…
-
My Bi-yearly Wardrobe Check-Up Part 1
A few years ago, I started doing bi-yearly wardrobe check-ups, once in spring and once in autumn, which means I was due one this month. While my wardrobe isn’t as minimalist as Elisabeth’s, I try to run a fairly tight ship. This was by choice previously, but now that we’ve moved into an apartment, this has become necessary. We don’t have any extra storage places, so I keep all my clothes in my wardrobe, including off-season and specialty clothes. The number 1 rule is that everything must fit neatly into my half of our wardrobe. About three years ago, I started systematically doing this. I wrote a list of the…
-
Looking Forward, Looking Backward – March 2023
Reviewing progress on my March intentions, and setting my intentions for April. Daily Routines: I’m still doing the Lectio365 app each morning. I overhauled my weekday breakfasts and lunches to include more protein. Generally, for breakfast, this looked like either overnight oats and porridge in the steam oven with chia seeds, hemp seeds, almond butter, a touch of maple syrup and cinnamon with grated apple or banana and yoghurt. Lunches were usually grain bowls with loads of veggies and lentils, beans or eggs. I’ve found the trick to this is to always make sure I have the ingredients on hand and ready to go. I do want to work out some more…
-
Looking Forward, Looking Backward – February 2023
Reviewing my progress on my February intentions, and setting my intentions for March. I had a substantial mid-month motivation slump, so I didn’t move forward quite the way I would have liked this month, but I managed to pull myself together and get a few things done. Daily Routines: I’m still doing the Lectio365 app each morning. Daily strength exercises did not happen. I started OK but fell off the wagon during my slump and haven’t picked it up again. I think I’ll shelve this for now. In March, I want to concentrate on getting a good breakfast and lunch with enough protein each weekday. Three Times a Week is…
-
Looking Backward, Looking Forward – January 2023
Reviewing my progress in January, setting my intentions for February: I spent a couple of weeks with my parents at their house in Point Lonsdale. The girls also stayed down until mid-January. My siblings we down with their families for some of the time too. The summer holidays are usually when we spend the most time together. Daily routines: Start the day with the Lectio365 devotion is happening. I do it before I get out of bed. I’ve wanted to make sure I do my strength exercises more regularly. I think a lot of the problem was that I hadn’t tied it to a particular time of the day, so…
-
Friday Thoughts #5
From the comments on my post, email seems to cause angst to many people. I mentioned in my post that one of my strategies was to move the backlog of unread newsletters out of my inbox and into a newsletter folder. Oliver Burkeman, in his newsletter this week, recommends this tactic for any backlog. First, isolate the backlog. “After that, your top priority is not to clear out the backlog, but to prevent a new one accumulating, by attending to new incoming items (emails, tasks, whatever) in a steady and regular way. Only once you’re in the swing of that should you turn to the backlog itself, making it a modest priority…
-
Taming my inbox again
I’m an inbox zero fan. My optimum situation is inbox zero every afternoon before I turn off the computer to get dinner ready and wind down, but with the move and Christmas, it got totally out of control. I hadn’t done any unsubscribing from the reams of promotional material coming into my inbox for a while; I’d just been hitting delete, but that wasn’t helping future me. Also, with the rise of Substack newsletters, my inbox was stacked to the brim with reading material. Prompted by Elisabeth’s inbox declutter, I decided to do something about it after Christmas. It is now after Christmas, so … I started by unsubscribing from…
-
2023 Intentions
I have a running list I call my ultimate list, with things I want (or need) to do. Not the things that need doing immediately, but all those other things. When I add something I put the year next to it. When it’s done I mark it complete and put the year next to when it was complete. Periodically I check it to work out what I might put on my more immediate list of things to do or what might need to be removed. Daily Routines: The start of the year is one of those times to look at the list and work out what I want to tackle…
-
Gut Feeling
I’m an INTJ on the Myer-Briggs personality scale to the endless amusement of my kids, who love to point out that this is the super-villain personality. My reply to this is that everyone has a choice to use their powers for good or evil. Anyway, this means that I prioritise thinking, especially rational arguments, over feelings when making decisions. I sometimes also get frustrated when others seem to be ruled by their feelings to their own detriment. I noticed over the last few years that I seem to be making more decisions based on “gut feeling,” which was strange given my commitment to rational arguments. I thought maybe I was…
-
Tools of the Trade
For a number of years, I used a bullet journal to look after my calendar, to-do list, journal and notes. I did enjoy having everything all in one little book, so You could see all the parts of your life juxtaposed against each other. Later I moved to a travellers notebook, so I didn’t need to draw up the calendar/planner sections. Finally, I switched mainly to digital tools a couple of years ago. Here are some tools and resources that I currently use. WORK: PERSONAL ORGANISATION: JOURNAL: FAITH: READING: NOTE-TAKING: WRITING: RECIPES: RUNNING: PHOTOGRAPHY: Do you favour analog or digital tools or a mix of both?