New Year, New Plan: FOCUS!
I am a polymath with interest in a lot of things. But while I can do many things, I cannot do ALL the things. And sometimes trying results in my accomplishing nothing. So...
I need to focus down.
This is so hard to do because: Look! Shiny!
(Even now my temptation is to detail out all the cool new fun & shiny things I was planning to do this year which now, because of the change in my circumstances I either cannot do, or it would be a really bad idea for me to split my focus on trying to do. So, no! FOCUS!)
My story-a-week challenge starts tomorrow. (January 15). My primary focus needs to be on writing a story, each and every week. My plan is to write a minimum of 3000 words per day, Monday to Friday. The first project of every week is my short story for that week. If I get it finished before Friday (which hopefully will happen more often than not, once I get ramped up with this plan), I will work on my Get Fit stories and/or a novel-length WIP for the remainder of the week. Once I have got my 3000 words for the day, I can work on other things, but not before.
On weekends--provided I actually got my short story finished and wrote my 1500 words--I can do the other things first: business, craft study, research, learning graphic design, etc. My top priority here is market research, cataloguing my inventory, and then getting everything out on submission to the best markets and keeping everything out on submission until it sells. I need to focus down on the craft study front too and stop trying to do too many courses all at once.
I also need to do more reading. But here too I need to focus and stop signing out 30 books from the library at a time and then not finishing any of them. So let us say a maximum of one novel at a time, one non-fiction book, plus short stories. Provided I have finished my 3000 words for the day, I will shut down my computer at 9PM and then read until GBOT. My body's circadian rhythm will thank me!
On the fitness front, I definitely want to keep up with my running and my yoga. But running is a weather dependent thing, and we're moving into the time of year when the weather often dictates no running. (The forecast for the next 7 days currently predicts 1 day in which it will not be dangerously too cold outside for running.) On the yoga front I run into the problem of wasting too much time deciding what to do. And planning ahead rarely works out for me because I don't know in advance how much time I will have on any given day for a yoga workout. I also want to keep up with my push-ups progress and my martial arts training and... And once again we are losing focus. I cannot do all the things! I need a plan that is short and sweet and to the point and isn't weather dependent so I can be assured of doing something every day but also doesn't force me to spend time or mental focus on deciding what to do. So here is the plan:
Running: Any day the weather permits (which this time of year means the windchill is not less than -10C and we don't have white-out conditions). 3K on weekdays. If I'm able to go for longer runs on weekends, I will. But if the weather doesn't permit running on the weekend I'm not going to worry about squeezing in a longer run during the week. (Once the weather warms up and I don't need to spend so much time getting dressed to go for a run, I'll likely increase my mileage. But 3K is fine for now.)
Yoga: Do a proper yoga workout on Sundays. Maybe on Saturdays too if I don't run that day. This will have to do for now. I'm not likely to be in a position where I'll be able to teach yoga any time soon. But I need to keep up my skills enough that I'll be able to jump into the game if and when the opportunity does present itself.
DAREBEE: One program at a time. One. And it needs to be a program with a controlled workout length. Maybe also a challenge to round out my training (depending on what's in my current program). This will be done only 6 days a week, Monday to Saturday, (to allow time for doing yoga on Sundays). The current program is
Fit December, to be followed by
60 Days of HIIT. The current challenge, which I will start tomorrow, is
Power Hold. (The squatting work in PH is insignificant for me. But it won't hurt. The push-ups work is pretty much the perfect program design for me for my goals and how my body responds to upper body strength training. In fact, I might just do the Power Hold challenge over and over again for a while. We shall see.) DAREBEE workouts will finish with hand stuff: either
Wrist Pain or
Talk to the Hand, plus
Hand Tendons.
This is all.