Tag: planning

Another year on….

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It’s been over a year since I set up this blog, and it was only whilst I was rumbling with the idea of starting a blog about Imposter Syndrome and being an HR advisor that I remembered this site even existed. Rather than take up yet another URL that I don’t actually need, I thought it made more sense to ramble away here instead.

I thought it was only right to have a look at the past and put some things to bed before launching straight into complaining about the current situation (I’m sure there are plenty of covid-related blog posts floating around at the moment), so let’s see:

  1. I’ve re-bought my house after the significant other turned out to be a significant waste of space and effort.
  2. I’ve started another new job, but this time it’s within the same company rather than starting a new one so I suppose that means it’s a promotion of sorts. In reality it feels like a whole lot more of the same with a whole lot less clarity…but more on that later.
  3. My job has been at risk of redundancy and I decided it was a good idea to represent my colleagues through the process.
  4. More family members lost.
  5. I’ve peaked and then totally dropped off with my exercise regime so whilst I successfully lost weight, I regained a significant proportion of it.
  6. I’ve found my better-half.
  7. Planning was the 3rd of my new year commitments and I’m actually quite proud to say that I managed to stick to using my planner for the whole year and into this one, unfortunately Coronavirus has unfortunately put a stop to that for now so I’ve been searching for other ways to redirect that focus.

 

I’m not sure what my intention is in the longer-term but I suppose I’m going to use this blog as a kind of therapy at the moment so here’s to hoping that nobody reads it because writing is not one of my strong points. We all need a safe space to vent!

New Habits

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It is common to talk about resolutions in the new year, I’ve also tried labeling them commitments so it’s more about committing to the here and now than resolving to change in the future, but I’ve decided this year to think about new habits instead. You only have to search “habit forming” and you’ll come up with over 44 million results from definitions, to self-help, to psychological research. Whilst there are contradictory views throughout these articles, the clear message coming from all of them is that habits take time.

There are 3 habits that I want to develop this year, two are pretty standard (healthy eating and exercising) and I’ll come to those at another time, but the final one is the one I’m starting on first – planning.

Luckily for me, one of my lovely friends bought me a planner for Christmas this year – it’s not just your usual week-to-view diary, it’s also got weekly to-do-lists, goals, appointments and blank spaces. I would always have an old-school diary with birthdays and the odd plans scribbled down, but the huge open spaces would make me feel like my life was boring: work, eat, sleep, repeat. Whole weeks would go by when I wouldn’t even open it. In contrast, my new planner has small boxes and breaks things down into bite-sized chunks that make me want to write things down just so that I can actually tick them off. I’m writing to-do-lists and actually planning the time to do them, rather than waiting to get bored of sitting on the sofa before I get up to do things.

There are two parts to this habit:

(1) The habit itself of spending time planning my week ahead and being brave enough to plan further into the future

(2) The benefits of the habit – so far I’m seeing myself being more productive (I’m writing a blog post first thing on a Monday morning before work instead of lying in bed scrolling for 3 hours), and I’m feeling more satisfied due to being productive.

I tell a lie – I think there are 3 parts to this habit. As well as initiating the habit and reaping the benefits, I now have to maintain it and that’s the hardest part. Hopefully the satisfaction of achieving something with my days will help to build the intrinsic motivation needed to keep going until it become a natural part of my rhythm and routine. I won’t be overly prescriptive with when I sit down to fill in my planner, or become overly critical if I don’t tick off everything on the to-do list, but I will hold myself accountable and ask myself “why not” if I’m not achieving my goals.

I’m putting this all down in a blog post as the first step to holding myself accountable for doing this. I’m not qualified to give advice on life when I’m still trying to figure it out for myself, but what I would say is this: find a way to hold yourself accountable, whether it’s by sharing with someone close to you, telling the world, or even by finding yourself an accountability buddy to talk to. Finding a way to hold yourself accountable is like taking out an insurance policy – even if you let something drop, there is a mechanism in place to get you back on track again.

I’m trying to live my best life after all, so surely the best place to start is by actually DOING STUFF, and giving myself a hand to get it done!