Monthly Review

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Life with a flip phone

I lost my phone in November and went a month without, just because I didn’t have time or the inclination to get a new one. I happened to have an old flip phone around from a previous experiment so I reactivation it and now have been using a flip phone for two months. Very rarely (maybe once a month) I borrow R’s phone to help with directions to get somewhere new, but mostly I’ve been making it work.

Some reflections:

  • I am really good at remember directions now. I can get to all of our basic driving directions no sweat and can look up the intersection of a new place and actually remember where it is
  • I am much more able to be bored. I spend a lot of time sort of passively reading instead of passively on my phone, but also a fair amount of time doing nothing.
  • It is really hard to stay in contact with more than 5 or so people. I can’t face time, group text, etc. Mostly I see people in person, call people, and have the energy to text only a few times a day because it takes forever.
  • I miss the ability to listen to podcasts and audio and use my desktop a lot to listen to podcasts.
  • You are completely boxed out of some things in life (like restaurants with only QR codes). I’m thinking about getting a printer to print timed tickets and similar items.

We have a new baby on the way and so I’m thinking about getting a new phone mostly to take video/audio but I don’t want to. I feel like smartphones totally corrupt my brain and I have no idea how to control myself around them.

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August Goals

I was going to write this post on Monday (August 2), with the possibility of a new week and month before me. Then we got waylaid with a fever virus and like is now absolutely crazy! Here are my goals for the month.

  • Go to the beach 3-4 times
  • Ride my bike somewhere at least once
  • Eat all vegetables in the fridge without any going bad
  • Buy a disposable camera and take some pics

That’s all. If I can do all of those things, I’ll have had a nice August.

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Monthly Review – October

I haven’t done a formal monthly review since January 2019, but I was in the mood to restart. Something about fall back-to-school nostalgia maybe, or starting a new month where both R and I are working full-time.

1. What went well this month?

  • Phone foyer! I heard this funny phrase to describe exactly what R and I have been doing. MG is creepily obsessed with our phones, so we’ve been leaving them in our mudroom. If you want to use your phone between 4-8 pm, you have to use it in there where she can’t see you. It’s been really nice actually in terms of making the rest of our house a phone-free space.

2. What didn’t go so well this month?

  • Meditation. I wasn’t able to go to our meditation group at all and really miss having a formal practice. I’d like to make more space for it in future months.

3. What did I work on last month and how did it go?

  • Just rolling with the moment. Overall, I think it went great. It was a month where I didn’t really make plans in advance, and spent most nights after MG’s bedtime on the sofa lounging. But it did make me feel a little antsy. R and I used to spend a lot of nice time doing puzzles while listening to podcasts, or playing games and I feel like recently we’ve been a bit lazy about having nourishing downtime versus lazy downtime.

4. What am I working toward?

  • A weekday morning routine. In November, I’ll be doing daycare drop-offs but will likely also keep working from home most days. I’m likely going to make a full post on this, but I’d like to make a new morning routine that sets me up well for the day.
  • Productivity. So far at work, I’ve been able to leave work at 4 and avoid having a post-bedtime shift. I’d like to keep it up so when I get home from work, I’m totally available to play and connect with MG and R.
  • Simplifying. I’ve just been really over stuff recently. I did a big clean of our mudroom and want to tackle our coat closet next. (Yes, I am blessed with storage space in my NYC apartment!). Clearing out junk has been very satisfying to me. But also simplifying in terms of how we are spending our time – embracing lazy days at home with soup on the stove.
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Monthly Review: August

Here is my monthly review for August. If you want to read July’s, check it out here.

1. What went well this month?

  • Re-discovering my mindfulness practice. I had been feeling very disconnected from my mindfulness practice this summer. I stopped my daily sitting and basically just stopped being mindful altogether. I couldn’t figure out if it was hormone related, heat-related, or something else. I didn’t force myself and this month got really into practice again. I started reading this amazing book, Mindful Birthing, which I love. It’s a childbirth-focused class of the eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program R and I did and feels really right with my philosophies and mindset. There’s a whole set of working through pain practices in there that I am (kind of!) excited to try.
  • Weekends of leisure. After a busy July and with an upcoming busy September, it was so nice to have almost every weekend free this month. We went to Maine, went to the beach a lot, and had a lot of free time. I found myself enjoying it even more because I know we won’t have free weekends like this in a long time, and it was a nice way to connect with myself and with R.

2. What didn’t go so well this month?

  • Working out.  I have kept up my standard exercise routine – two days of lifting, a day or so of yoga, almost daily stretching, and walking a lot. But man, has it been hard to recover. I decided, though I have been crushing my deadlifts recently, I’m going to drop my weight down and go to higher reps in all my lifts. I can complete every workout, but the recovery time has been getting longer and longer and I’ve had more feelings of – I just don’t want to do this. So I’m going to take it a little easier and listen to my body. I started this in an open level yoga class yesterday where I opted out of just about every advanced variation. Normally I would have a lot of ego around that but I focused on being loving and mindful of where I truly was at the moment, and that was a nice practice to add-on.

3. What did I work on last month and how did it go?

  • More intentional time usage. Honestly, I’m not sure how this went. It’s not really a thing I’ve been thinking that much about. I almost see it as I’m not using my time as well/efficiently as possible because I’m…just really tired. And that’s fine, isn’t it?

4. What am I working toward?

  • At-home productivity.  I have completed 40% of my pregnancy (!!), and am starting to get a little panicked about all the things I have to do/want to do to prepare that we just haven’t moved forward on. Basically getting our apartment in order, having whatever furniture we deem necessary, having maintenance do some basic repairs, etc. I want to do a house walk through with R and just make put everything on a giant list that we can focus on.
  • Maintaining/increasing mindfulness. My daily practice has been great, and I want to continue mindfulness in other daily activities. I’ve been doing this pretty consistently on the subway instead of listening to a podcast or reading, and while walking, but want to focus on incorporating 1-2 more mindfulness practices into my life (maybe mindful eating and something else).
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Monthly Review: June

Here is my monthly review for June. If you want to read May’s, check it out here.

1. What went well this month?

Honestly, I can’t think of much. It was a hard month that felt off the rails.

2. What didn’t go so well this month?

  • Routine. For a variety of life reasons, it just felt like every structure in my life fell apart. Rhino and I were out of town for consecutive weekends, I had a week-long business trip where I could never leave the hotel, my workout friend and I had ZERO weekends we could both make, and my office was closed for a problem in the building so I was working from home everyday. And, there was an insane heatwave (reaching into the 100s every day) so even my usual long walks were difficult. I came out of the month just feeling so ungrounded and so unhappy.
  • Meditation. Because of strange timing, I had two weekend meditation retreats this weekend. And I haven’t meditated since. I feel totally burned out on the experience and like I never want to meditate again.

3. What did I work on last month and how did it go?

  • Mindfulness. Terribly. I never want to meditate again, though I have been fine with more general mindfulness.
  • Summer fun. I had a hard time enjoying myself just because everything was so busy and I couldn’t find any structure in the enjoyment. Without any disciplined time (working out, walking, eating well, productive work, etc.) it was hard to enjoy downtime.
  • Being accepting of where I am. This is fine. I have been self-compassion but I don’t know that self-compassion is what I need as much as structure and discipline.

4. What am I working toward?

  • Better structure and routine. I just really need this. I want to create a daily schedule for myself everyday that creates space for working out, the meals I will eat, my work hours, etc. I especially want this for working out because skipping the gym for me is a spiral that leads to doom. This is it. The sole goal for July.
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Monthly Review: May

Here is my monthly review for May. If you want to read April’s, check it out here.

1. What went well this month?

  • Relaxation. We had 9 days off work and that was such a joy. We stayed pretty local but it felt so nice to have a real respite and spend a lot of time doing whatever we wanted. We swam in the ocean, took day trips, walked many miles each day, ate a lot of ice cream. It was just delicious all around, and we were also able to see a lot of family and friends.

2. What didn’t go so well this month?

  • Mental obsession. As my two blog readers know, I have had high anxiety over fertility. For some reason, though I can take most things as they come, I started to get overwhelmed with this fear that it would never happen. It was really, really hard to let these thoughts go.

3. What did I work on last month and how did it go?

  • New office routines. This went terribly. I hate hate hate my new office which is basically like working inside an HVAC machine. I have had real difficulty getting any work done in my office because of the noise, the lack of good lighting, and a non-working phone line for much of the month.
  • Self-compassion. I had forgotten this was a goal, but have been doing a lot of work offering compassion to myself. This has become almost an automatic behavior which is nice. I’m also much better at offering compassion to others.

4. What am I working toward?

  • Mindfulness. I have two meditation retreats coming up. One is silent (starting tonight!) running Friday-Sunday. It will be my first formal, silent retreat. The second will be more of a fun weekend retreat with my meditation friends at a cabin upstate. I’m looking forward to both, especially because both are phone free. And, I rarely take weekends out of NYC that aren’t to visit family, so that might be nice as well.
  • Summer fun. Everyone who lives in NYC knows the summer vibes are great. Our summer plans are pretty full until July 4th and then we decided we wouldn’t make any more plans so we maximize fun each weekend. Our weekend plans for the next month include a Vermont wedding, two meditation retreats (one silent, one with friends), and July 4th in CT.
  • Being accepting of where I am. This is linked to self-compassion, but I want to continue to be gentle with myself and aware of how I am doing and what I need. The concept of nurturing comes to mind — just treating myself with a loving friendliness.
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Monthly Review: April

Here is my monthly review for April. If you want to read March’s, check it out here.

1. What went well this month?

  • Relaxation. I really enjoyed having time off this month from formal, standing, and scheduled activities. It was a real pleasure to be home most nights and get to choose an activity to do — whether that was social or not.
  • Morning pages. I re-started these in April and they have been a great way to kick-start my day and add in some brainstorming and reflection.

2. What didn’t go so well this month?

  • Over-training. I pushed really hard at the gym and it caused like five days of physical and emotional exhaustion. It wasn’t really worth it.
  • Obsessing over fertility. Anxieties about fertility were in the back (or often front) of my mind probably at least once an hour this month. Just a constant cycling. I know I am prone to getting really obsessive over health-related things and research and find all sorts of home remedies to “problems” until I am taking like 10 different pills a day.

3. What did I work on last month and how did it go?

  • Nothing really. I had wanted to take a month off from productive goals. I mostly did that. Mid-April, I really over-trained myself at the gym and had a full week where I basically just sat around, ate what I wanted, and watched TV. That was nourishing for me at the time and I naturally entered a phase with a little more drive.

4. What am I working toward?

  • New office routines. My company of 8 years is changing offices. This is really bittersweet for me and I frankly have some anxiety around what the new space will look like. At the same time, it is a terrific new start to some of the routines I want to put in place like…
    • Limiting the times of day when I can use the internet for fun/personal browning/news reading/etc.
    • Having a list of focus activities for myself I can work on if work is slow (e.g. taking courses, learning Japanese, etc.)
    • Being a little healthier — maybe taking two walking breaks a day instead of one long one, standing more, eating in the kitchen instead of just at my desk.
  • Self-compassion. The more I emphasize this, the better my quality of life is. Acknowledging what my mood is, accepting that, and then seeing what care I need from myself or from others, goes a long way towards helping my life not be totally dominated by my emotional state.
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Monthly Review: March

Here is my monthly review for March. If you want to read February’s, check it out here.

1. What went well this month?

  • Deep Work. I got really into Deep Work in March and started to shift some of my habits towards that. Now when I want to get something done at work, I turn off my email, turn off my internet, and get to work. I set a time frame — typically 45 minutes to an hour and a half, and just focus on my work during that period. It makes me tremendously productive. I have a goal of two hours of deep work a day which, in combination with the number of hours I typically spend in a meeting, is enough to meet my work obligations. It also frees me from this sense of I should be working all the time. If I’m working (outside of a meeting), my internet is off and I’m focused until it’s done.
  • Nourishment. One of the lessons I learned in our MBSR class was how to intentionally nourish yourself. For a week, we were told to pay attention to any activity that we found nourishing. In a month too full of obligations (see below), it was nice to have this practice to come back to. I would schedule whole days asking myself what felt nourishing right now. And often it was something very simple and accessible — meditation, herbal team, a walk.
  • Giving up news. Very much in line with the above, I have started to give up instant news. Social media news (mainly twitter) and intensive checking of other news. Now, I have a few sources I check a few times a day, but it’s less obsessive than it used to be.

2. What didn’t go so well this month?

  • Obligations. I had standing commitments this month for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. And five weekends in a row were spent with my parents or my in-laws. I felt very much over scheduled. In April, I move back to my only standing obligation being twice a week workouts with my lifting buddy, so I’m looking forward to that.

3. What did I work on last month and how did it go?

  • Focus. With MBSR & Deep Work, this has gone pretty well.
  • Self-compassion. This has also gone well, though I have moved towards calling this nourishment. I feel more in tune with my mental state and more aware of what sort of care it needs at any given moment.

4. What am I working toward?

  • You know, I have been sitting here and thinking about this for a while, but I’m not really sure. So maybe I’ll take April off from proactive work and just let myself be a bit.
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February Monthly Review

Here is my monthly review for February. If you want to read January’s, check it out here.

1. What went well this month?

  • Scaling back my workouts. In February, I started attending an 8-week program on Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. The class meets once a week for three hours but assigns a lot (a lot) of practice time. It was starting to overwhelm me and my body was plateauing a few different lifts, so I decided to switch to two lifting workouts a week. Bench & deadlifts one day and back squat & push press the other. It’s been amazing.
  • Going on vacation. I spent a week hiking in Saguaro National Park. It was nice and really gave me a national park buzz. I didn’t check my work email once (over nine days) and honestly a lot of the vacation was…boring. There wasn’t that much to do in town and we got sick of driving after a while. It was nice to both take time off and take enough space to feel excited about coming home.

2. What didn’t go so well this month?

  • My energy level. All month, I have felt very low energy. I think this is because the MBSR class shifted my schedule just enough that I got about an hour less of sleep every day. I just felt drained and exhausted a lot of the month.

3. What did I work on last month and how did it go?

  • Injury prevention. This went well. I was able to shift my workouts towards something that fits better into my life at the moment and have been stretching every day.
  • Mindfulness-based stress reduction. Well, I have certainly been doing this. I have noticed it is easier for me to be mindful and not resist unpleasant experiences so much. But it’s been challenging in others ways as well.
  • Creating more art. I did not do this at all, mostly because I felt too low energy all month.

4. What am I working toward?

  • Focus. MBSR has made me want to be more intentional around focusing — when I’m at work, when I’m at home — really, with whatever I am doing.
  • Self-compassion. For whatever reason, this has been a slightly mentally and physically challenging time period for me. It’s been nice when I’ve been able to be less rigid and identify what I really need and do that.
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January Monthly Review

Inspired by this, I wanted to start doing monthly reviews. Here we go!

1. What went well this month?

  • Tracking my daily habits. Having a quantitative and visual way to track my daily habits gave me a lot more accountability and helped me more concrete about exactly what I was aiming for each day. The format also allowed for some built-in flexibility.
  • Bringing back my work out buddy! When I started lifting, I become close friends with a fellow lady lifter. We worked 3x a week together for a few months. After I switched gyms, I worked out on my own which was fine. But now my workout buddy is back and workouts are the best mix of lifting and socializing.
  • Taking some tech sabbaths. I define a tech sabbath as turning off my phone for a long period of time. I had the opportunity to do that for a full day this month, and that was great
  • Having a solo weekend. My partner was out of town on weekend so I did my tech sabbath and focused on alone time and renewal. It was great.

2. What didn’t go so well this month?

  • Social plans. I didn’t plan a lot of social events this month. I just didn’t want to…feeling some guilt about this even though I don’t regret it.
  • Productivity.  I felt like most of my hobbies this month were consumptive and I didn’t create any art, write any letters, journal, etc. Nor was I very productive at work…feeling some guilt here too.

3. What am I working toward?

  • Injury prevention. As my lifts keep increasing, I want to focus more on great form, stretching, foam rolling, and generally caring for my body. It can be hard for me to take it easy on any given day, but want to continue to strengthen the voice of my body.
  • Mindfulness-based stress reduction. I signed up to take a MBSR course. I was interested in deepening my meditation practice, particularly in my daily life (versus just on the cushion). I am also hoping it will help with injury prevention.
  • Creating more art. I want to identify a few projects that are easy enough and that I will enjoy doing. I’m thinking some crafts, probably valentine’s day cards, knitting (likely a hat because that’s all I ever want to knit), and maybe something cooking related.