21-day Boot Camp

[CoolBee]

In the spirit of accountability, New Year's resolutions (today (18th) was Islamic New Year in Egypt), etc, I have written myself a Boot Camp program.

Dec 19 - Jan 12th (allowing 4 days for possible trip away over usual New Year or other extended social events)

Aims: to make a step change in a number of areas by Jan 12th (of personal significance )

I have detailed checklists at home but these boil down to approx:

Appearance 1 hr per day
Health (exercise) 1.5 hr per day
Home routines 1 hr per day
Decluttering 1 hr per day (includes major declutter of 3 laptops, 2 ext HDs and numerous USB Flash drives plus the last remaining horror draw in my flat)
Arabic 1 hr per day MIN (depending on CD or book chapter length)
Piano 0.5 hr per day (learn 1 new piece and finish another piece over the 3 weeks)
Work 2 hr per day MIN (coaching, bookwriting, websites for friend)
Other 1 hr per day MIN (rotating schedule of home, work, health etc items)


Ho hum, I already feel exhausted looking at that!

So that's 8 hours out of a notional 16 free hours a day () with time allocations.

Emails, forums, blogs and all that palaver have to occur outside that time.

7+ hours will get A
6-7 B
5-6 C
4-5 D
3-4 E
2-3 F
1-2 G
0-1 H

Sickness genuinely preventing action -> day excluded.

Can I be an A student in this one

[CoolBee]

Day 1: well it's past bedtime and I'm at the end of Day 1. I have scored an A today

However, I did not do any decluttering but I did an extra hour of work instead (and am still) on a friend's website and the Arabic overran as the CD was longer than an hour. I enjoyed playing the piano with a goal in mind instead of my usual doodling. I still did some doodling, but it was nice to have a proper piece to focus on for most of the time. I have to tell you though some of those hand stretches were cramping my hands after so long with no significant playing!

I met up with a buddy earlier and she nearly fell over at the sight of me in earrings and I spend 50LE (about $10) in the pharmacy on scented unguents and I have never applied so much different moisturizer to so many different parts of the body as today

I also walked up to the top of the flats twice and walked 5km.

All looking good so far.

[moonrambler]

I really like this idea.

[CoolBee]

Thank you moonrambler - can I just ask you what is the main reason you like it? Just because I'm nosey and like to know what grabs some people more than others!


Day2: Towards the end of my second day and another A - good at this hehehe.

I walked up to the pool (which is 1 hour round trip along 4-lane desert highway) in quite hot sunshine and had a coffee and worked on the One page business plan for my non-fiction book. (Didn't swim as not a swimming day today).

The piano is killing my hands - luckily I brought an old book of scales, arpeggios etc with me from the UK as I seriously need to limber up the hand and finger muscles!

Emptied the horror drawer out all over my bed to force me to begin decluttering it. And yes, I did a first cut through it and have put the stuff away for overnight.

Also, I did another CD of arabic and converted another 3 days worth to MP3 and have loaded them on to one of my mobile phones that has headphones and MP3 capabilities and have fully recharged it so I can take it up the pool tomorrow - and my swimming stuff is packed ready to go - only decision is whether to go before I eat my lunch and take it with me or after.

The only thing I didn't do was the second walk to the top of my block of flats, my calves were in agony after yesterday!

I only had 5 hours sleep last night so I had an hour this evening as well.

[moonrambler]

Originally Posted by CoolBee

Thank you moonrambler - can I just ask you what is the main reason you like it? Just because I'm nosey and like to know what grabs some people more than others!

I like reading people's 30-day trials, and I totally relate to a lot of this 'boot camp' one in particular. I need to pay some attention to home routines, de-cluttering, and exercising. I play piano but haven't in a very long time. I like studying and learning new skills and gaining new knowledge. I also am motivated by grades.

Also, I like a variety of activity, one reason I liked college so much and never took very well to a regular job. Your schedule here is quite varied.

[StarieEyed]

I like it too, the reason I like it is b/c I am a mom to two young kids and often skip somethings (applying lotion, exercising, general stuff for just ME) because I feel I should be getting us out the door quicker or just spending time doing what they want. If I had time allotted for that, and even can incorporate them in it some way, I would more likely do it!

Think I will do something similar too!

[CoolBee]

Have you ever checked out Flylady? Honestly, this woman 'saved my life' back in 2002 when I was working 84 hours a week and trying to write up my doctorate and my flat was a total utter chaotic not a square-inch to move cluttered den!

She introduced me to the difference between Born Organized and Sidetracked Home Executives and taught me the FREEDOM routines bring you where most of my female contemporaries assumed that it would turn me into a Stepford Wife (albeit single!) it freed me. Took me 6 years to declutter mind you!!! but that led ultimately to me being able to move abroad (something I never had in mind at the time I started!) and allow lots of good new stuff to flow in to my life!

She helps you build household routines slowly, and incorporates stuff like 'date night' for you and your other half if you have one or just you if you don't! Pamper missions and all sorts.

It's a bit sugary sweet sometimes, but I was active on a PayrollSHEs group for several years and we just ignored that stuff and picked and adapted what we wanted.

[Gaz]

Good luck with this. I think it's a great plan.

(And before you ask, here are the reasons)
I like the idea of grading. It's a nice easy objective way to measure how succesuful you are at sticking to the plan.
It also looks like a nicely balanced program.

Just some advice on the two things I know.

If you haven't been exercising much, be careful not to try to do too much out of the gate. Rather be consistent that do so much the first day that you're too sore to do anything and miss the next three days.

The second thing is the piano. I hated arpeggios and scales, but I found something that works just as well for limbering up you fingers, and doesn't require that you sit in front of the piano. Try looking for some Magician's finger exercises, normally performed with a number of balls, but I know there are some around with coins as well. These will do just as much for you hands as the scales, and you don't need to worry about getting the fingering wrong. I'll have a hunt around for some more info if you're interested.

[CoolBee]

Great thanks re the piano exercises. I haven't done today's yet and am just limbering the fingers up

My legs are a bit sore today but tomorrow is a 'less exercise, more work' day so I'll be ok for Wednesday

Day 3 I have been a girly swot and feeling smug

Walked up to the pool, swam for an hour (can't get over how slow I am compared to just 6 years ago when I used to zip up and down!), took a packed lunch with me and had that and a coffee out in the sunshine while doing the next arabic cd which I put on my phone.

Did some more work on my friend's website.

I am definitely appreciating the 'if the job is a 'how long is a piece of string job' measuring it by how much time is spent on it' method rather than achieving specific objectives which you don't know how long they will take to do approach. EG - the overall goal might be to achieve something or it might be something very hard to measure so using the "I will count it achieved if I have done 24 hours over 3 weeks' type approach is very useful.

Anyway, day 3 is not yet over so I shall edit back when I am done

Hm. I think I should get an A but it's a scrape. I went above and beyond the call of duty with my swimming but did not do my piano in the end - it's too late really (re disturbing the neighbours). My piano does have a headphone socket (it's a Roland 330 Digital Piano) but needs a fitting I don't have here so will have to invest.

I didn't do decluttering either.

The good thing though is that it is heading for 12.30am here and I am actually feeling healthily tired - enough to go to bed - some 3-4 hours earlier than I have been going lately! So maybe that adjustment is a good thing.

I'm also figuring out what things have to happen earlier in the day if they are to get done more easily - piano, vacuuming, mopping to name but 3!

Overall, I feel that I deserve the A but I need to watch that some areas don't become neglected and substituted for others. Are we allowed A- ?

[Gaz]

Perhaps you need a different scoring system if you are sure to remain on track for each of the targets. Perhaps assign them a score out of 5 or some other arbitrary number. So for each of the 8 areas, you assign a score and total the scores and from there work out the grade. You can always weight them differently based on how important you feel they are. This may make it a little more objective and will allow you less weasel room. It'll also give you clear trends at the end that you can graph and play with the numbers (if you're into that sort of thing).

Keep it up though. only 18 more days to go.

[CoolBee]

If it goes pear-shaped again I will think through that idea Gaz - I do actually have a fairly extensive tick sheet (well I am totally sad and bought a teacher's register which has millions of tick boxes in it as a special treat a few weeks ago ) to back this up so could use that for doing weightings etc.


DAY 4


However, today, Day 4 - and it is definitely superstar A+ more than makes up for yesterday as I made sure to cover everything that got missed yesterday as well do today's list.

One thing that was a major help: as I put above, there are theoretically 16 hours a day to 'do stuff' (I use 8 hours a day for sleep whether in one shift or more). But for the past 3 days, starting at 930am and going to bed anywhere between 2-4am, I was only just able to account for 8 hours - so what happened to the other 8 Was I abducted by aliens? Entering an alternative universe and the time machine being slightly out of sync?

So today, I decided to log every 15 minutes what I was up to. And surprise surprise, starting at 945am, I was almost done by 8pm! I just had a 1 mile walk to do (now done - was waiting on a buddy), and just got a small bedtime routine to do - last bit of washing up, feeding the cats, cleaning teeth that kind of stuff. I had about 2 hours of goofing off interspersed through that time which I know consists almost entirely of meddling on forums though I managed to refrain from posting

Tomorrow is a swimming day again so I will monitor again as it means somethings have to completely change order so I will take my arabic up the pool again and maybe some written work to do. I realise that yesterday partly screwed up because I originally planned to swim for half an hour, but it was so nice I stayed in for well over an hour and also didn't allow for the half hour needed for changing, showering and stuff so I need to manage that better.

Also, tonight, I am going to make up 7 days worth of 'packed lunch' (bread and cheese) and freeze them so I can just grab a bag everyday regardless of being at home or swimming or whatever and not have to think about it. I'm having to boil up the water to bottle and freeze tonight as it's coming funny out the tap at the moment (I think it's just excess chlorine but I'm not sure!). Am also defragging, backing up, virus scanning and stuff my 2TB of harddisks etc.

PS It is 1am here and I am totally enjoying messing around on forums guilt free because today I achieved so much 'proper' stuff

[CoolBee]

Day 5 - B

Screwed up on a number of counts today! Suddenly dawned on me that day after tomorrow is Christmas and I haven't sent a single card (real or e) yet, was planning to go swimming but felt too tired and was about to go for a nap when I got a text from someone I was supposed to be talking to on the phone today saying was I ok (I had got the date wrong)! Didn't vacuum because I wanted to do it after combing the cats, but the little swines ran out in to the garden and it is too late to do it now. And I couldn't be bothered to do piano.

On the plus side - things I did which I hadn't originally intended for today - I did 1.5 hours of work related phone calls, spent nearly an hour creating and sending an ecard, had extensive real life Arabic practice when the laundry man and the security guy turned up on my doorstep and we 'talked' in my best Arabic for a while. Also, dyed my hair roots and did all the 'beautifying' and most of the 'housework' chores and basic exercise (2 miles walking) down for today. (Swimming is a 2 x per week extra).

So, overall, I did 7 hours of stuff that comes within the scope of the Boot Camp.

So, while I am a bit ticked off, it is now 10pm and I could, with a push, have done all the other stuff, but I am having an 'inner brat' moment and I DON'T WANNA!!!

[CoolBee]

Well here I am part way through Day 6 and I have just made myself do my piano practice. Now I have figured out why I avoided it yesterday - it HURTS - I don't mean the physical stretching of the fingers I mean the application of trying to get the notes right! I know I will be so pleased when I can actually play this piece properly that I am trying to learn from scratch, but at the moment... it's HARD.

This is what I'm trying to learn:

Csikos Post

I was playing a piece from my repertoire as well and while I have forgotten bits of it, I learnt it about 30 years ago and have remembered it pretty well since then, and can almost play it without thinking. I know I went through this pain then but oh gosh!

(Just watching vids of kids playing that piece - they must have got some rapped knuckles learning that!)

DAY 6 = A
I did everything today plus caught up yesterday's vacuuming. The only thing I didn't do in the end was walk up to the top of the block of flats. The reason for that was I had a dental appointment booked for 1030pm this evening (this is Egypt!) which is high up in another block and I was going to count that, but the appointment was cancelled last minute so I bottled doing it in my own block as there's no real excuse for walking to the roof that late at night!

[CoolBee]

DAY 7 - A

There were some rocky moments today. I went to bed 2am last night and set my alarm for 830am - then switched it off and finally got up around 11am. I was still really tired. I looked as if I had no sleep at all. Nonetheless I forced myself to go swimming - I walked up to the pool, then remembering it was Friday (like Sunday in the UK) I realised it was likely to be busy and as I walked planned all my excuses for not actually getting in the pool. Anyway, there was only 1 person in the 'Olympic' pool so I had no excuse. I did swim for an hour, then I went and had a 'help yourself salad' in the restaurant there (about $1.40 for as much as you can pile on your plate), and did a bit of work. It was a really beautiful sunny afternoon, 22C (about 72F), gentle breeze blowing. Anyway, got back and was shattered out and slept 3 hours. Really had to fight to get anything done this evening.

However, I had 2 coffees (having realised I had only had 1 all day - usually 3 by this time) and recovered enough to plough through the Arabic and other bits and pieces. The piano was reluctantly attacked around 10pm and to my surprise went WAY better than yesterday. The piece I am reviewing (old repertoire - it has 3 movements, I only ever learnt the first) I more or less made it to the end of the first movement with not too many errors, and the new piece I got through the first page (of 4) albeit slowly and hesitantly and strewn with errors.

I also had a bath (first I've ever had in Egypt being a showering kind of a person!) and spent an hour doing 'beauty chores' and the kitties bought me a nice tube of scented unguent (ginger and passionfruit scented) to slather on afterwards.

So, here I am with just a little work to do to call it a day - a bit of editing on a friend's website I am setting up for her.

So, I hope that the tiredness will lift by tomorrow! I looked like crap today - big bags under my eyes, puffy face, despite a total of 12 hours sleep since this time yesterday!

PS - I don't do Xmas for those who are wondering! I have spent 12 out of the last 13 years alone and managed to gently deflect invites for this year away.

PPS - I am anticipating Sunday as being the first of the four days I allowed in the challenge to not be 'on boot camp duty' and I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it! Remembering to time and tick so many things is a little trying!

[CoolBee]

Summary of first 7 days:

Overall, scored 324 ticks out of a possible 356 = 91% (Giving each tick equal weight though one is make bed and another is do a whole arabic cd - but hey ho).

Apart from giving up the second climb to the top of the flats after day 1 (as it was killing my calves), decluttering was the thing that was hardest (4 days out of 7) - not sure why because at the moment it is almost all computer decluttering as the cupboards have all been done since summer!

Against the original target heads:

Appearance:

Total sum of 4 critical body areas - lost 3.8cm (1.5 in)
Regular moisturizing has dramatically improved skin condition in various areas (except funnily enough face where my face seems heavier and more baggy even though it's light moisturizer).

Wore earrings on 6 days out of 7. Still haven't decided how to deal with swimming days. First swim day put earrings on when I came home. Yesterday didn't bother as it was so late. Maybe I should have.

Health:

Weight lost= 1.5kg (3.5lb)

Walked 35km and swam 40 lengths of big 'olympic' pool (2 hours swimming) - not convinced this pool is 'olympic' length but noone seems to know how long it is in meters plus 7 climbs to top of flats.

Multivitamin, iron, mineral mix and garlic oil capsules taken daily.

1litre of water drank daily.

Home Routines

Maintained (having been doing this particular routine for 3 weeks now) and takes much less time daily now to do as the routine has been honed and worked on. Less is more!

Decluttering

4 hours done. Did the 'horror' drawer and am now making strides on decluttering the hard drives etc. Making sure I have 2 and ONLY 2 copies of films, music etc etc. and doing extensive backups a couple of times a week (plus 'hoof' backups of important daily stuff).

Arabic

7 CDs (about 8 hours so far) listened to and practised (Michel Thomas Method Foundation Course) - while the vocabulary used in this is technically revision for me, it is good to degrease the mental wheels as it has been quite a few months since I applied myself to this task. I never got past the first CD of this before, and it actually covers a lot of ground in quite a gentle way in terms of practical use of Egyptian Arabic in daily life.

Piano

2.5 hours of piano practice done. Am working through my scales book - start at the beginning each day and move forward adding 1 a day. Am reviewing and freshening up a piece I had learnt by rote as a teenager but was beginning to forget in the past year or so plus learning additional movements. The new piece, I went from zero to being able to stumble through page 1 (of 4) and some bits actually flow a little.

This has been quite hard to do both physically (hand stretching and dexterity of finger work) and mentally, forcing myself to do something HARD that I know I will be very pleased with eventually though right now it seems a long way off!

Work

Made good progress on friend's website including resizing pictures, making detailed shots (she is an artist), deciding on layout etc.

Did other work as necessary. Did all the relevant hours but I did not spend enough time on my book writing so need to remedy that next week. I think the website is a bit of book-avoidance because there is no timescale for that as I'm doing it as a freebie favour.

[spirit4711]

This is a cool challenge you've set up for yourself, Cool Bee! Inspiring too. Keep going!

[cacheborn]

Wow coolbee. Way to go! You are so inspiring. Keep going.

[CoolBee]

Thank you both


DAY 8 - A

I feel that today was a struggle even though I have already substantially exceeded my hours. The only thing I have totally blown out is piano. I am so tired I just don't have the energy to fight it tonight and I was supposed to be seeing a buddy this evening but have had a natter on the phone instead. I daredn't let myself have a nap this afternoon because I'm out all day tomorrow for hours.

I have more than done my hours because it has taken me several hours to declutter the films on my harddrives partly because there was not enough 'clear space' to just copy them over and lots of shuffling about had to to go on. Also spent an hour or so looking at some files someone sent me last night.

I have done the housework and basic health and appearance routines too. I also finished the last CD in the Arabic Foundation course so next is on to the Advanced course.

Also printed out the dreaded property tax form everyone who owns property in Egypt - even if its just a tin shack - has got to fill in. Luckily I already went through it with a friend a couple of weeks back in Arabic, and now they have produced a version with English on it so I know what questions I'm actually answering!

Anyway, thank goodness tomorrow is a day off the ceaseless round and I turning off the computer tonight not to be switched on again until Monday.

[CoolBee]

DAY 9 - A

I really enjoyed having a day off yesterday and went up to the big city and chillaxed with friends.

Today was a day of lots of waiting around. My satellite stopped working so called the guy and he spent an hour and a half fixing things, going up and downstairs and twiddling about on the roof. (I have one dish but two antennae).

Then I went to the dentist tonight and my appointment was half an hour late starting. But anyway, tiz done. So annoying, white fillings that cost me over £600 in the UK 4.5 years ago are starting to crumble. Luckily I am reassured that the total cost of replacement here in Egypt will be about 600LE (ie about one tenth of the cost!) only problem is I am allergic to one of the anaesthetics and need to try to find a different one.

Apart from that, I did the arabic, the piano, finally managed to get cats and comb in the same room on a vacuuming day! Walked 5 km and so on.

And tonight, I filled in the dreaded property tax form and dug out copies of my contract, passport etc as required.

So, all in all, a day where I achieved what I wanted.

[CoolBee]

DAY 10 - A

Finally moreorless managed to do today. I am still suffering from really heavy tiredness - despite getting 8 hours last night, I still had to take another couple of hours this afternoon. Seems quite a few people round here are suffering the same. Wonder what it is? I'm eating more healthily, taking vitamins etc, doing much more exercise, achieving more?

Anyway, I went swimming today and walked 5km so that's good. Decided to put the earrings on after I came back - decided as long as I wear them for at least an evening, it counts. I also did a couple of hours work on the book - collating the stuff I have scrawled on whiteboards etc.

Tomorrow might be tough - I have to go submit the property tax form but (a) there's no address given and (b) noone answers the phone so it will be an adventure!

[Gaz]

Good to see you're sticking to it. Only 11 days to go.

Go! Go! Go!

[CoolBee]

Thanks Gaz

DAY 11 - A

Today went much better than I expected. I had to find a home for the property tax form and had no clue where my local one was. In the middle of the night I had a brainwave - take it to the main office in the middle of Cairo - at the very worst if they would not accept it, then they would be able to tell me where I was supposed to deliver it!

Excellent decision. I had one of my most pleasant encounters with Egyptian bureaucracy ever. It took me just an hour to get up in to the city and I was in the main office a grand total of 22 minutes only, a very helpful young man went through all the paperwork with me to make sure I had completed it correctly (he spoke almost no English though so there was some pantomime in places!) and came out with the requisite receipt.

I was back home about 3 hours after leaving.

Also, my tiredness seems to have finally disappeared overnight. I went to bed 2 am and woke up at 7am with no alarm, nothing, and was able to get straight up. I have had 2 hours sleep this afternoon but I figured I earned it.

The only thing I haven't done yet (and am not going to do) is piano. We have had 4 powercuts today and my piano is electronic (nb it is a piano not a 'keyboard') and needs power. By the time power was restored about 30 minutes ago, it is too late to do it.

Now, my next trick is how to cope with the next 3 days. With tomorrow being New Year's Eve and Friday being New Year's day, I have some social events to attend and some will probably manifest unexpectedly and at short notice and I don't want to be a party pooper and say 'I can't come out to play because I have to tick off the laundry' or whatever.

Having thought about it, I have decided that the best way to tackle it is to do 3 days ticks over the next 4 days - so giving myself in theory a whole day off, but actually being able to spread things out a little.

So, I will declare tomorrow December 30th as the official day off. (2nd of the 4 I am allowed by Jan 12th). In actual fact, I will do somethings tomorrow and mark them off against Friday so I can relax on Friday as well.

So, my next report will be on the evening of Sunday 3rd January and will cover days 12,13 and 14.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year wherever you are and whatever you are doing

[CoolBee]

I've decided to report in tonight and have a fresh clean start tomorrow (Day 14) without having to do 'catch ups'. I'm too tired tonight to finish everything off and if I try and do it tomorrow as well as tomorrow's stuff I am going to be behind forever.

DAY 12 A and DAY 13 B

The Arabic has been done, but I missed piano today.

Housecleaning fell behind, but on the other hand I spent several hours decluttering the computer.

I have kept up with all the walking but I haven't been swimming either day (however I have swimming tomorrow for Day 14 so that's ok). I did the 'scented unguehts' and wore earrings each day.

I'm getting an idea of how to take things forward at the end of the challenge - what things needed to be given 'process' time (ie maintenance/ongoing activities - such as piano and arabic) and things which are more 'project' time where I need more lengthy focus time but on the other hand there is a definite deadline and end time to it.

I had a couple of really nice social evenings though and that's more important

So, tomorrow is Day 14 and then it will be the end of 'Week 2' of the challenge.

All my Day 14 stuff is off the computer so I won't report in til Monday now.

[Tanja]

It's great reading about your challenge CoolBee!
And hats off for actually writing here about how your days went...if I started a thread like this I'd probably forget to update it...lol

[CoolBee]

DAY 14 - A

It was good to start fresh yesterday without the catchups. I did start thinking - oh no how will I fit the mopping in as well as the vacuuming then "I don't have to because I just step right back on to the schedule" and just do the vacuuming scheduled for yesterday.
I was a very good girl and did everything except take supplements (conscious decision to stop taking right now - see thread in Healthy area) and didn't walk up stairs and skipped one of the beauty chores because I still get in a bit of a muddle about doing things before swimming which I would have done if I wasn't swimming and therein lies the key probably.


END OF WEEK 2 REVIEW

I have now done 14 days of the challenge (plus had 2 days off for social activities) so it's been 16 days since I started.

Summary:

In Week 2 I achieved 313 ticks out of a possible 344. ie 91%. Also so far in the whole challenge I achieved 637 ticks out of a possible 700 so I am consistent at the 91% level.

I totally failed in stair climbing doing it just once in the week. I find it totally knackering and I guess maybe I need to improve my overall health (and reduce a little more weight) for it to be less uncomfortable. For that reason for the remainder of the challenge I am "consciously removing it" (which means I take the ticks away). I will take this on as a separate challenge after this has ended.

Piano practice is torture - it is so hard pushing myself to do something like this - I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the habit of giving up easily! It is so easy for me just to relax back in to playing old repertoire which I know off by heart or generally doodling about. I had to give myself a stern talking to - my half hour practice must be scales + new piece + revision and extension of old piece, plus 3 old pieces which limber up the fingers. NOT dragging old unchallenging stuff out of the cupboard.

KPI Heads:

Appearance:

Dropped a further 2.25cm (0.9 inches) off the 4 critical areas chosen as the KPI - that is a total of 6.05cm (2.4 inches) since the start. I am looking leaner generally, especially the legs and there are little 0.5cm losses in a number of other areas that I wish I had put in the KPI now

Am keeping up the moisturizing very well only skipping 1 day. My feet are a marvel to behold and I treated myself to another big pot of scented unguent from the pharmacy (Fruttini Ginger and Passionfruit Body Butter) to match the lotion I got last week - it's so yummy I could nearly eat it

Also did 'earrings' every single day. This might seem like a silly item but it's important to me.

Health

I lost a further 1 kg this week (2.2lb) so that makes 2.5kg (5.5lb) since the challenge started. Not bad especially considering I ate almost 1kg of chocs given as a gift and had two big meals out during the week.

I have an issue with the dietary supplements which I have put in Health so took them daily until yesterday and will be doing a 'detecting' programme in the coming week to see what if anything is causing the terrible tiredness I have experienced for the past 2 weeks.

I went swimming twice - total 2 hours - clocking 46 lengths of the pool - I think it is probably a 33m pool - I'm going to have to do it the hard way and count tiles along the side I think to find out. I am increasing the lengths I do by 2 each time. I used to knock out the equivalent of 60 lengths of a pool this size in an hour so it's a bit galling that I can only do just over 20 in an hour right now!

I also walked 35km. Only 1 stair climb.

Home Routines

Kept up very well until day 12 and 13 when I was trying to play catchups round social engagements. I should remember what the dear FlyLady says - just jump in where you are and don't try to catch up. I do recall reading an article somewhere about the whole concept of catching up (in any sphere) and why you shouldn't do it. Will try and dig it out.

Decluttering

After not being so hot on it during week 1 I was far too hot on it this week. Got all my movies in one single list on both my external hard drives and OFF my laptop. Also all my music albums. I am not allowing myself to do computer decluttering this week as it gets too addictive - I will do that next time I hit computers decluttering in a couple of months time - and I need to start decluttering papers now.

Arabic

I kept this up daily which I'm quite impressed with myself over because that's 2 weeks on the trot now (after months of stopping and starting!). I do however have a major incentive which I shall NOT reveal Over the course of the week I worked through the Michel Thomas Advanced Arabic course - 5 hours of CDs - 2 of the CDs I had to do twice as it gets a bit harder! In the coming week I am going to do the MT 'Vocabulary' course - another 4.5 hours of CDs (which will probably take me 7 hours to do with a bit of reviewing).

Piano

2 hours of practicing done. This is a struggle. I love playing piano but the discipline required to learn new pieces is a torment and it's too easy to stop trying and just get something old that I already know out. One of my friends said "why bother, why not just take the easy route" well that's just it isn't it! If I could do this stuff as a kid, I can surely do it now! And I guess I have some idea in the back of my head that it's good 'brain training'. And actually, I WANT to do it even though it hurts and I will be so pleased with myself WHEN I succeed.

Work

Did a bit more on friend's website and also mapped out the book further. Now I just need to start writing it!

I need to focus my work efforts more in the next week - it's too easy to procrastinate on the things I really want to do by doing what technically counts as work but is not focused in the right place.

I also find (what I knew anyway) that I am much more comfortable 'binge-working' (ie totally focussing on one area for several hours) than changing from one mode to the next.

This is something I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the difference between 'process mode' (things that don't have defined ends, that I want in my regular life for ever or a long time anyway) and 'project mode' (things with a defined end).

EG for me, piano should be a process mode albeit it may have small goals like learn this piece, arabic is definitely process mode because how can you ever say you have learnt a language - so again, a fixed daily amount of time to spend on it and a curriculum to follow is best. Book writing I will count as a project for now but maybe if it is a success (to me - not necessarily global acclaim!) then it should become a process? Anyway, things to ponder not now.

So overall I am pleased with my progress in a number of areas. This week's work focus is going to be 12 hours on the book + 4 hours on websites + 4 hours on coaching + 1 hour blogging.

[CoolBee]

Today not going well. I am really in a "can't be bothered" mood. I am not going to do arabic or piano today I have just decided. I am trying to do my washing but there were 2 powercuts so I had to keep restarting it so it's taken forever.
Hm. Grumbly moan.

[Gaz]

i have days like that. Normally a few things go wrong or something that I thought would work didnt. I find the best way to resolve it is to do something that can't fail, like "buy bread and milk" or "wash the dishes". I find starting and doing stuff like this gets me through the hump and starts me off on the right direction again.

Of course, sometimes i don't want to do this, and then I have a few choice phrases that get uttered and I write off the rest of the day. I'm sure tomorrow you'll get back on track.

[CoolBee]

Day 15 - C

Well I did finish polishing the wooden floor in my bedroom, collated all my blog posts in to a word file as step 1 of creating an Ebook for charity, did some coaching, house chores etc.. Finally finished the washing despite 4 powercuts today.

Did not do piano, arabic, walking because I could not be bothered.

My inner brat got it's way.

Anyway, tomorrow is the third of the 4 days off I am allowed as there is a visitor from the US in town and we're going out tomorrow to a music evening.

[CoolBee]

Had a lovely day off yesterday and went to a great gig in the evening - traditional Egyptian music with a modern twist.

Anyway, today I realised like a smack in the head that over the past few days I have got completely muddled over something on this challenge. I sat down to figure out my day - recall it's supposed to be 8 hours of accountability - and I have been finding it hard the past few days!! Well I reviewed my list and it was about 12 hours. So I went back to the initial principles and realised that stuff I was supposed to be counting as 'other' I was adding ONTOP of other! So I have been overworking It also means that my stated aims for 'work' for the coming week are grossly over planned - the 'work' time is supposed to include swimming, various big weekly housework chores, and other things, which for the past few days I've been trying to do extra to the time. Doh.

That gives me great relief, I couldn't understand why things had started going pearshaped. EG my swim takes out around 2 hours of 'other' (extra walking, plus just over an hour swimming time plus changing etc) which I had started putting outside Other!

Anyway, I am going to take stock in a short while and see what else is left to do to make this a A day

DAY 16 - A

I swam today, walked an extra mile (so I walked 6.5km today), did my arabic (reviewing what I learnt from the 'advanced' course and what the 'vocabulary' course contains coming up), piano practice (I can stumble through 2 pages of 'the piece' now ), drafted a blog post about the gig last night, though I want to add some photos and I took them on one of my camera-phones which doesn't connect to computers (don't ask - blame a MAN - I let a man help me choose this one - bad mistake - trying to 'show him he his necessary in your life' kind of fem thing - didn't work anyway - I believe he's married to someone else now ) so am downloading software that I'm hoping will let the cable I bought let phone and computer talk to each other.

Haven't done the moisturizing thing yet and didn't wear earrings.

I also managed to see a friend I haven't met up with for a few days so basically a good day.

[CoolBee]

DAY 17 - A (***** )

An excellent day all round. Got up at 930 after exactly 7.5 hours sleep, decluttered 4 year's worth of photos and videos from one of my mobile phones, gave up trying to use cables and software to upload the photos from my other phone and ended up just emailing them to myself with some financial regret but sometimes the simplest solution is the best.
Did coaching, did arabic, walked 5km, (multi-tasked that one - copied the arabic onto my phone with the MP3 player and listened while I walked - was just walking locally so not dangerous to do), piano practice, washing, finished my blogpost and put it up (oldbag blog).

One major lesson learned - never EVER use Word 2007 to prepare a blog post. Took me forever to edit out all the flippin' code that copied and pasted in. It would have been quicker to retype the whole thing! But hey - you live and learn. First time I've done that, wasn't thinking!

Only 4 more days left to go! Saturday will probably be the last of my official days off before the end of the challenge but it's not 100% yet.