2024-12-22
tags: none
Words: 560 (2 minutes to read)
(This is entry 50 of #100DaysToOffload)
It's almost Christmas now. I haven't written a blog post in ages - the reason being, my laptop on which I write sort of broke. I would turn it on and the screen just wouldn't come on. I gave it to a relative who works in IT, and it turns out it just kind of fixed itself, by the time that he got around to looking at it. He says that often computers just disable features if there is too much power in the capacitors, and so to fix you just have to wait for it to discharge itself. Well, I've the laptop back now, and I can start again to work on 100DaysToOffload!
I've also been implementing a little bit the new schedule, or routine, that I will be following 2025 to reach my 25 for 2025 goals. It has not been perfect - I have not done anywhere near the amount of exercise I want, for example, but have been decently achieving my goals in terms of guitar and the mandolin (which I received earlier this month, and absolutely love!)
I have also, in the past week, had very little screentime on the phone - less than ten minutes a day, really. That is for eight days. If I continue this on for another 23 days, I've already achieved one of my 25 - #16 to go a month without more than 25 minutes of phone use. I will relax it after I've achieved it, to allow for use with WhatsApp or messages to exceed that number, but not for other purposes. This essentially gives me all the advantages of low screen time, but doesn't penalise me for messaging people (a good thing).
I'm also halfway through 100DaysToOffload now. I've read Klara and the Sun and am going to have read The Innocent before 2025, so I'm already two down of the 20 books to read in 2025.
In terms of the quality of the life, the lack of screentime, and the focus on creating rather than consuming (i.e. playing guitar and mandolin rather than listening to music, writing, studying...) and the fact that the media I am consuming (books, essentially) is a lot slower is really helping me out. Already I feel better for it in a way, as if my life is getting... slower, or more methodical. I hope this continues and I find that I make good, slow progress on what I want to do, and have a generally slower life too.
Of the four main goals, then, I have done very well in terms of guitar and mandolin. I have done less well, but still acceptably, in terms of study. I really do need to just improve in terms of exercise, which has been truly lacking this month. I am quitting the gym, but need to ensure I take up exercise at home more seriously, for instance to achieve the goals of running a 5k without rest, skipping each day, and working out 100 times. I've only been to the allotment once this month, but there isn't much to do in winter anyways. That will be more of a concern come March.
But it's all going ahead decently well. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I think this coming year could really bring with it some good habits if I just make sure to act on them, and be consistent.
Ok, that's all.