Quarterly recap – January to March 2018: winter school & baby steps

Hello friends! I have moved from my monthly recap to a quarterly recap, but I’m hoping that you’ll find some value in this format too. Either you know me and you’re curious about what I am up to, and/or you can use this as inspiration to “check in” with yourself at regular times. For those who enjoy them, there are lists aplenty!

(Note: this post contains Amazon affiliate links. I only recommend products that I like and either currently use or would use. If you make a purchase, you support this blog: I earn a commission at no cost to you.)

At the start of the year, I lept into Veganuary and also went to Switzerland for a winter school linked to my PhD. It was called “Science meets Practice” and revolved around how people in academia can contribute to projects that are societally relevant. It was an inspiring 10 days, spent between Zurich and a monastery in the village of Wislikofen. I gained a lot of clarity regarding my research project, so I’m very grateful to have been given the opportunity.

February whooshed by – I think we should balance the months out more! I can’t recall much, other than it being cold… Which proves that I should do more interesting things and document them better!

In early March we went “up North” to visit family and celebrate my aunt and uncle’s 50th (!) wedding anniversary. Then our friend Naomi got married the next weekend. After that we had the 90th birthday of my granny’s “chap” and the 80th of Rob’s granny, so plenty of parties and overeating at buffets!

I’m very hopeful for April and the months to come, as “happy me” really does wake up when the sun comes out. I’ve been working on new ways of increasing my productivity, including tracking my time and setting a timer to push myself to complete activities. That way I can have more time to do fun things beyond research and blogging!

I set big goals for 2018 – so big that they require a shift in the way that I do things. Because what is the point of setting goals if you’re going to achieve them sticking to business as usual anyway? I may not reach my big goals this year, but every quarter I take action towards them. Sometimes it involves doing things out of my comfort zone, like reaching out to inspiring women to be interviewed. I recommend you check out my blog post on setting goals and think about what you want to achieve this year!

Below I detail my baby steps progress towards my goals, but also the books I’ve read, the items I’ve ticked off my bucket list, my overall wins and some possible improvements. I started drafting this blog post a few days ago, so I’m proud to say that I’ve now actually made quite a bit of progress on the second quarter’s action steps since then!

Progress towards fitness goals

In my initial blog post, I set out to reach 80% lean body mass this year. I have now revised it to 75%. I did a month and a bit of yoga in January and February. I’m now currently laying the foundations of a more complete fitness routine, by preparing for a 10K run and going to my local gym. I’m up 0.4% lean body mass from 63.5% on the 1st of January. I’ve still got 10.1% to go!

Actions taken:

• Have a soup every day for a week;
• Have a smoothie every day for a week;
• Do all 30 Yoga with Adriene TRUE videos;
• Have a salad every day for a week.

Actions for this quarter:

• Show up to a zumba class;
• Walk / run 31.5 km in a week;
• Walk / run 135.5 km in a month;
• Complete a week of workouts;
• Read Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness;
• Run a 10K race;
• Read The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative;
• Do three parkruns;
• Go to three green gym sessions;
• Read The Flexible Body: Move better anywhere, anytime in 10 minutes a day.

Progress towards research goals

My second big goal for the year is to develop a methodology for co-creating a citizen science project in Rio (and get it approved by my PhD supervisors). This involves writing quite a few literature reviews and fine tuning my research methods based on those. I have currently written one out of nine “building block” documents (though as I type this I have just submitted the first draft of a second literature review).

Actions taken:

• Send second draft of citizen science literature review to supervisors;
• Do reading for winter school;
• Attend classes at Reading (my university!);
• Send third draft of citizen science literature review to supervisors;
• Read The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science.

Actions for this quarter:

• Send first draft of citizen science in the global south literature review to supervisors;
• Read The Literature review: A Step-By-Step Guide For Students;
• Finish reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed;
• Write a first draft of citizen science in Latin America literature review;
• Create an updated research proposal;
• Read Everyday Experts: How people’s knowledge can transform the food system;
• Do the reading for the Summer School on Research Practice for Food System Transformation I applied for;
• Write a first draft of an urban agriculture literature review.

Progress towards income goals

My final big goal for the year is to earn £10,000 in extra income [beyond my PhD scholarship]. I have made £101.58 in extra income – only £9,898.42 to go! I’m currently accompanying a geography fieldclass to Amsterdam, so I’m going to get paid for that. I am also exploring some revenue opportunities linked to blogging and property this year.

Actions taken:

• Post blog quotes on Instagram;
• Create loop-share of blog posts;
• Create Resources: books, podcasts & more page;
• Get to day ten of the blogging challenge;
• Ask ten women to be interviewed for the Interviews with Inspiring Women series;
• Re-read How To Blog For Profit: Without Selling Your Soul.

Actions for this quarter:

• Create a simple opt-in freebie on this website;
• Read Building Wealth One House at a Time;
• Contact someone regarding buying property;
• Publish five blog posts;
• Re-read The 4-Hour Work Week;
• Publish ten blog posts;
• Create an ebook.

Items ticked off my bucket list

When I turned 27 last November I wrote a bucket list of 27 things I want to do while 27 – you can check it out here! I’ve worked my way through a few of them already:

• Visit a country I haven’t been to before – done: Switzerland in January 2018;
• Take a vegan cooking / baking class – done 08/02/18: Latin American Vegetarian with Sophie’s Kitchen (thank you Rob!);
• Get to inbox zero: unsubscribing from too-frequent newsletters and decluttering my physical inbox – done 16/03;
• Interview someone / have a guest post on the blog – done 28/03/18 go check out Interviews with inspiring women: my mum, Jill Goodenough;
• Make sushi at home – done 29/03/18: it was very yummy – check my Instagram for a picture soon.

Books read

I’ve definitely picked up the pace with my reading compared to the end of last year. Here are the books I have read between January and the end of March:

• HOI: Your New Swiss German Survival Guide;
• Learn German With Stories: Zurück in Zürich – 10 Short Stories For Beginners;
• Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong;
• The Desire Map: A Guide to Creating Goals with Soul;
• The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science;
• Development Theory and Practice: Critical Perspectives;
• How to Blog for Profit without Selling Your Soul;
• Shadow of Night.

[amazon_link asins=’3905252678,1540692922,1861057156,1622032519,0692694838,0333800710,B00F0XYIMI,075538475X’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’jlgoo-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’291f4f8f-4096-11e8-8c70-8f73f346a443′]

If you want a bit more details on the books above and further recommendations, check out my Resources page!

Overall wins & achievements

• I created an exercise routine: I have joined my local gym and started preparing for 10 km run;
• I learnt a lot from the transdisciplinarity winter school I attended;
• My literature review on citizen science was well received by my supervisors;
• I created a resources page for this blog;
• I started the Interviews with inspiring women series.

Possible improvements

• Eating more fruit and vegetables: smoothies, salads, soups…
• Having “productive” breaks, like reading or using Duolingo, rather than getting distracted by social media / YouTube / the Internet…
• Heading to bed early to read.

So there you have it, what I’ve been up to these past few months. Some of the progress and mindset shifts I’ve made this past quarter are down to Jocelyne‘s gentle guidance and coaching. Appropriately the next Interview with inspiring women is with her! Subscribe below if you don’t want to miss it! And please share what big and little things you’ve been up to since the start of the year in the comments.

xxx

Jessica