What have I been up to? February 2017

February really sped by! But it’s time for my monthly recap again… So here goes!

Goals

• Apply for at least three scholarships / sources of funding – not so much
• Book flights for summer in Bordeaux – done 26/02/17
• Post at least once a week on blog – not at all

Wins and accomplishments

• Embracing ‘friluftsliv‘ (yes it’s trendy but it makes so much sense) and enjoying the mixed bag of weather that we got this February – from snow to hints of spring sunshine – through cycling to work, my first lunchtime ‘sanity walk’, Treezilla fieldwork and a green gym session with my mum;
• Finishing Great Expectations – I have been ‘reading’ it for ages (Rob reckons since we’ve been together – eek), but it does get suddenly very interesting in the second half of the book. I am planning to do a lot more reading this year so this is a step in the right direction, though I have decided to withhold buying books for Lent as I need to catch up on the ones I’ve already acquired;
• Unsubscribing from all newsletters that come in – I was receiving hundreds of emails a week and now I just feel so much more peaceful!

Losses

• Not getting enough sleep and thus feeling subpar at work;
• Staying up too late watching Luther – which has also made me a bit jumpy when it’s dark;
• A few occurrences of feeling unhappy with my appearance – probably a combination of the havoc caused by the lack of sleep, indulging in food during many family events and not enough exercise.

Fixes

• Reading books on school nights rather than watching shows for earlier and more relaxing nights;
• Following the schedule for the day that I outline in the morning, in order to get things done rather than pushing them back until later;
• Focusing on gratitude and taking care of myself.

I don’t want to make any excuses, but I have been quite focused on Valentine’s Day and my other half’s birthday this month, and with my parents visiting too, I would like to say that I prioritised quality time with others over things I had planned to do. Truth is that I had a bit of a burn-out after scrambling an assignment for my part-time course together, partially due to the influx of emails I was receiving before I went on mission unsubscribe (more on that later!).

My three main goals for upcoming month are to enjoy some nice spring weather (?) and to:

• Post five blog posts
• Go running at least four times
• Produce a draft for my Open University course end-of-module assignment

Anyway, enough about me: what have you been up to in February?