Team, I’ve been struggle-busing for the last few days. Some of the stress and emotional labor I’m working through started to manifest in my body, […]
Tie the Knots
It’s easy to start and maintain healthy habits when life is good. It’s necessary to do it when life is hard. My stress-level has mounted […]
Whiskey on the Rocks
My grandmother sipped whiskey on the rocks in the evenings. In the summer she sat facing the wide window looking out at the lawn, the […]
To Love Things
There’s always something ahead to love. If you’re a nerd (like me) and really, really love things maybe you can identify with the cycle:
Writing Update: Setting Deadlines
Writing Update Tuesday! This week I’ve spent the bulk of my writing efforts transferring my story from google docs to Scrivener and organizing scenes and […]
No Such Thing As Guilty Pleasures
I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. The phrase means that you should feel bad or ashamed for deriving joy from something that brings you joy. Bizarre. People throw it around when they talk about reality TV or eating chocolate. I find pleasure in a lot of things that would fall into this category, mainly tropey fanfiction.
Cheating, A Little, But Still
I have a confession to make, I’ve been skipping my morning gym time. Now I’ve been substituting it with a modified weight routine at home and have kept up my evening exercise classes. It’s been over two months since I haven’t gotten at least 10,000 steps in a day.
50 Books
I’ve read 50 books so far this year. 30 were physical books; 20 I listened to the audio versions. I haven’t read at this pace since high school (though really all I’ve done is replace fanfiction hours with published works). A few books have been bad, most of them average and entertaining, a few amazing.
Practicing Practice
I lead a monthly lunch & learn series at work for past graduates of our in-house leadership development program. It’s a discussion based program where I curate content – often a First Round article or Ted Talk – and we eat sandwiches and share our thoughts. It’s relatively well attended, though I couldn’t get any interest in the month I chose the theme diversity (the general squeamishness indicative of a bigger problem).
Pomodoro Technique
The more I try to cram efficiency into my days, the more I see how natural distraction comes to me. Even things like picking up a book and reading I’ll find myself getting distracted by thoughts before I pick up the book. As I wrote about previously, I’m interested in doing more deep work and decreasing my phone time every day. All in all, strategies like scheduling focused time, locking my social apps during the day, and shutting my office door occasionally have helped.