Progress on resolutions, January 2019


So we’re at the end of the month, and I learned a bit more today about freestyle (partly that I forgot everything I was told from last week’s lesson until I was reminded about it) but I’ll write that up tomorrow. For now, a quick review of progress so far for this year’s resolutions:

  • Reading – got to admit, this has been dreadful this year. So far, I’ve read one novel about Spaaaace Marines (which I started last year and only finished in Janaury), flicked through a Viz annual (and possibly ill-advisedly read an entire Pathetic Sharks strip to my girls) and really struggled with Fear, which starts with brutal things like a six year old witnessing death and hasn’t become more cheerful by the end of the second chapter.
  • Writing – doing ok here. Managed to write something every day. Whether they’re all high quality, or posted on time, is debatable. WordPress’s automatic posting feature has broken on cushtie.com for no particular reason, so getting stuff up there is a little more finicky than last year, so that’s something to fix.
  • Sleeping – started the year well, and then got worse. On average, I had 6.6 hours sleep per night, below my 7 hour goal. I did get over an hour’s nap while I was trying to get the girls asleep tonight, so that might have made up a bit, but definitely something to work on…
  • Play more Blood Bowl – this one has been a great success, and probably why the previous three resolutions have not been done so well. I played 31 games in the Black Box Trophy in January, (I was really hoping to average one per day, so I’m glad I pulled that off). Win ratio is about 3 times better than it was, and despite some despondency when I hit a losing streak in the second half of the month and everything seemed to be wrong for me, feeling more confident playing and not making quite as many egregious errors as before. Or perhaps this is just recency bias because I feel good about the game I won this evening?
  • Swimming – I’ve been plugging away at this. Up to now I’ve been limited by only having one opportunity to swim per week, but a friend has given me an access card so I can swim at his condo’s pool any time I like. Now I’ve blazed through my target number of Blood Bowl games, I’m going to try to swim every couple of days. I think this is a simple resolution to meet if I can just keep to a regular schedule.
  • Climbing – mostly back to where I was. The fact I managed to haul myself up a 20 this month shows I’ve partly surpassed where I was. Now I need to get more thoughtful with footwork, and more consistent. Again, keeping things regular will help.
  • General fitness Haven’t done anything here. Again, now I’m not chasing a game of Blood Bowl every single night, I can make time to do my pull-ups, hopefully work on my core strength, and I’m going to try to do my first Parkrun in over a year on Saturday… if I get up on time. How was that sleep resolution going?
  • Routine with the children – a 100% success rate at walking the children to school when I’m in the country. La Serpiente hasn’t been climbing since November, but again, we hope to do that this Saturday.
  • Juggling – not sticking to ten minutes practice per day. So I’m still being haphazard. I have got an online course to teach me to juggle, but I’ve not watched it yet. That seems fairly simple to fix. (I’ve also downloaded piano lessons – again, ten minutes per day when I’m not playing Blood Bowl should start to pay dividends, especially now I can use headphones with our keyboard.)
  • A healthier diet – I didn’t realise until I looked at my resolutions that I was trying to cut out sugary snacks at work. I did ok at this (there’s been some days recently where, in the flat slow spot of the mid afternoon, I’ve self-medicated with a Mars bar) but need to try to do better in the rest of the year. I don’t feel as brain-numbingly exhausted as I used to though, so that’s a start. When it comes to coffee, I’ve been 96.4% successful at sticking to a single cup (sometimes it’s a double espresso though). I think we can get this one right.
  • More writing – what about that novel, eh?

So, without wanting to grasp at straws, it feels like reducing my Blood Bowl game ratio to once every few days, and being diligent in the time that frees up, means I should get a lot of these resolutions on track in February. It might go completely pear-shaped when my travel starts in earnest, but let’s be hopeful… Call this 6 out of 10 for January?


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