Season's change: Spring

The good

A lot of good things happened to me this month. Most of them were down to chance, but I trace a few of them to my own decisions and actions.

I got vaccinated! This is our first step towards getting back to normal. My partner and I have started planning where we'll go, date nights, and so on for when we've had our second dose. We're both really excited.

I passed my basic radio qualification. Studying was really fun, but it was also amazing to get my first QSL card from VE3SCN. I did really well in the exam and I am looking forward to more radio fun.

My partner and I made friends with our neighbours. Now we sometimes look after their dog, who is amazing. Just the opportunity to hang around with folks in the garden near our apartment is such a relief.

I started working out in the morning with a friend who lives down the road. It's been really good to see them regularly and to get into a workout routine. I've made good progress -- I can now do "shrimp squats", so I'm moving gradually towards pistol squats! I still can't do pull-ups.

I've been more "into" audiobooks lately. They're very relaxing an I can "read" while I doing the dishes, tidying up, or other chores. It makes the less-fun parts of life far nicer. So far, I've "read" Highest Duty, Talking to Strangers, The Wizard of Earthsea, and The Dispossessed. I've enjoyed all of them with the exception of Talking to Strangers.

Similarly, my partner have got back into podcasts. We like to sit on our sofa with a podcast on while we both play a game. It feels strangely close to do the same thing without the mental and emotional effort of direct interaction. We can turn to each other and react to the stories together.

I've fixed a few things around the house. That made me feel really proud of my work, even when it wasn't perfect. If I made it work again, I was happy. It didn't need to be perfect, and I don't need to be an expert to get something Good Enough.

My mood got better in April and May. I logged 6 "bad" moods in April and only 1 in May. June wasn't perfect -- I logged 2, but that's still really good.

My routine has held steady for the most part -- journal and meditate before bed. I have missed a couple days in June, and I haven't always logged it. Unfortunately, I haven't always got it on-time. It seems to work well for me though, I sleep well, even if I don't sleep for long enough.

The bad

I've still not fixed my sleep pattern. I tend to eat my lunch and take a nap during my lunch hour. That's time I could be spending better. Similarly, I usually nap after work for an hour or two. I lose a lot of my time with my partner this way.

I let go of my habit and time tracking. These were both really useful for me. I worry that I'm not as "on top" of things without them. I know that I have, on occasion, gone way too long without washing my hair. This started off as forgetting to fill out my tracker, then forgetting to do the things on my tacker. Towards the end of P6 I just didn't write out a tracker for each week. No good.

Moving forward

There's a few main things:

1. I will force myself to not sleep during the day for a while. Hopefully, this will help make my daily bed time more consistent. Bring on the coffee!
2. I hope to restart my habit and time tracking. My habits are still mostly good, but they are slipping. Same for time tracking, I think I'm starting to spend more time on Slack than I should.

Onward!