Sunday, March 31, 2013

Quarterly Update

Back in January, I made 13 resolutions for 2013. We're now a quarter of the way through the year, so it seems like a good time to see how I'm going so far.

Fitness
1. Run 500km this year - As of this week, I have run 135.5km. This is 10.5km more than a quarter of the way to my goal, so this is good! I've gotten to the point where I enjoy running, even though my daily run is still only between 3.5 and 5km. I have had one week where I ran all 5 days of the week, but then got sick so haven't sustained it.

2. Cycle 1600km this year - So far I have cycled 366km. This is 34km less than a quarter of my goal, so I need to pick up my game!

3. Do push-ups at least once a week - I have done this so far! Most weeks I do push-ups twice a week, even, always in lots of 30. So far I'm up to 540 push ups for the year, which is 18x.

Work
4. Clear out my email inbox every day - I was going really well with this one before teaching started. I was down to 30 emails at one point! Because of this, I have been more on top of responding, writing things down in my diary and then deleting emails, and so on. Once teaching started it all got a bit hectic, but I still try to find the time to do this regularly. I currently have 89 messages:

5. Unsubscribe from email lists - I got on that pretty early in the year and have managed to avoid signing up for new things, for the most part. But when I'm busy, if I get a stupid newsletter I don't want, I tend to delete it straightaway rather than going through the steps of unsubscribing. Still need to keep this up!

6. Turn my PhD into a book and get it published - I write every Monday morning and am about halfway through the mammoth task of turning my very academic PhD into a publicly accessible piece of writing. I'm happy with how I'm going so far!

Crafty
7. Turn the spare room into a craft room - I did that in the holidays, though it still needs some key things (like a futon or spare bed for lounging on and also for guests). I have spent rather a lot of time in there this long weekend, making curtains for the bedroom window.

8. Finish crocheting the blanket I started in early 2012 - I have added two more rows to this blanket, and will probably finish it off some time this week.

9. Sew curtains for the bedroom and hallway, and possibly other rooms - see above for bedroom curtains. Due to a long gap between buying fabric and making curtains, as well as slightly shonky planning, my intention to get 4 curtains out of this fabric failed - we'll get three, which means I can't really use them for the hallway window. So, still need to work on that.

Garden
10. Plant more flowers amongst the veggies to attract bees - two weekends ago Andy started a bunch of veggie seeds in seedling pots, so the following weekend I planted some sunflower, nasturtium, marigold and echinacea seeds. He's not sold on the idea of flowers in the veggie beds, but this will happen!

Home and Life
11. Keep track of everything we spend for at least two months this year - we did this in February. I haven't had a close look at it yet to see where our money goes, but at least we did the hard bit!

12. Do more food prep and meal planning on the weekends - we have had lots of success with meal planning, and I definitely intend to keep it up!
Example of meal planning success: Channa sag paneer with chappati

13. Help out with at least three vegan outreach stalls - I have done one so far, at the uni O Week Market Day, and will be contributing lots of baked things to the Townsville Vegans Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in April. On track!




5 comments:

Kari said...

You're doing rather brilliantly Theresa! The nice thing is, I love all of these goals, in the sense that I can see why they would be rewarding and/or they're ones I share. Your writing efforts are particularly inspiring - I love that you have a set time in the week to do it. I may need to try quarantining half a day of my work week to see if that gets some of my long-standing 'to do' tasks ticked off!

Matt said...

You are so organised, and doing a fantastic job. I feel itchy and bad reading it all!!

urban vegan said...

Very inspiring! I truly feel like a slacker after reading this. You have accomplished more in 3 months than most people do in 5 years.

I LOVE the color scheme of the afghan you're making. This reminds me that I started sewing a quilt last year (and a few other projects) and I need to pull them out of the closet and finish them!

Anonymous said...

[ Smiles ] You have been rather busy, my vegan friend.

Joey said...

I properly take my hat off to you! So many sweet goals, so much under your belt - I hope you're feeling content with yourself. I envy you a craft room! The rest of the year should be a breeze with all of this behind you!

I feel like going off and making my own list of goals now!