Improvements

As I was running (and walking...) yesterday for the first time in months, while listening to the second Freakonomics podcast on the economics of sleep (part 1 | part 2), I had an idea. This often happens while I'm running, and I pretty much never end up acting, because the motivational high of running doesn't last beyond the end of the run.

 

But then yesterday, another of my favorite podcasts, Note To Self, revisited their awesome Bored and Brilliant project with a new update: Bored and Brilliant Boot Camp. Just so happens, that fits right into my idea from yesterday's run. It felt like the universe was talking to me, and how often does that happen?

 

So I'm going to try to act on my idea, which is this: gradually but intentionally, put into practice some of the many, many ideas covered in so many of the podcasts I listen to every week.

 

These ideas are all at least indirectly related to self-improvement. The very first thing I'm going to implement is an earlier bed time coupled with a set period of no phone usage each day. This should theoretically get me some consistent time in bed each evening before going to sleep, and I am going to use that time on some days to journal here about how my life improvement attempts are going, and what effects I'm seeing, if any, from each new idea.

 

This sort of thing has been done before. Many, many, many, many times. And I have been extremely bad at keeping up with any sort of blogging or journaling in the past, even of the one-sentence-a-day variety. AND it's well known to be very difficult to truly change behavior in the long term without an acute event that forces change.

Nevertheless, I'm attempting to implement two attempts to change my behavior: whatever I decide to do first, plus regular posts on my long-neglected blog.
 

What I'm NOT doing is aiming for anything with any ambiguity. This will all be very clearly and explicitly stated. No "going to bed earlier" or "getting more sleep" or "losing weight"; no, this all needs to be very concrete.
 

To that end, the first thing I am implementing is no phone use from 10:00 pm to 8:00 am daily. This idea is directly from the Freakonomics sleep podcasts. I have already set this up, using a phone use tracking app called BreakFree (not sponsored; I found this thru the Bored and Brilliant project mentioned above). I'll still be able to make calls and send texts, but it will disable mobile data and wireless, and I will police myself to not do anything else between those hours unless absolutely necessary. I have also turned off most sound notifications all the time, so that I am less tempted to reach for my phone throughout the day.
 

My hope is that I'll naturally get to bed a bit earlier as a result of this first initiative. If not, I think the next thing I'll attempt is to be in bed by 11:00 pm every night, and move that up to 10:00 pm once I've managed to stick with 11:00 for a while.
 

I am keeping track of current and future implementation on the "Ideas" page, which you can also find in its own tab at the top of the blog.

 

I will not be setting a schedule to implement these ideas. I will do one until it feels comfortable enough that I think I can tackle something new and still maintain it, OR until I decide that it's not working for me and it's time to scrap it and try something new. If I start a new thing and a previous one starts to slip, I may put the new one on hold our at least delay adding any others until ALL behaviors I've decided to keep are I track.

 

I am never going to make "weight loss" or anything like that a goal, but better physical and mental health for myself and my family is, of course, the foremost broader goal of this project.

 

What I'm hoping to record here is how each idea is working, my struggles with implementing it, whether I'm seeing any changes as a result, if I was expecting these changes or not...and also just to get myself writing stuff down, because it's yet another thing that I think I may love doing if only I'd get in the habit of doing it.

What podcasts do you listen to and love? I like "idea" podcasts, like Note To Self, Freakonomics, Planet Money, and Radiolab; and "story" podcasts like This American Life, Serial (duh), Longest Shortest Time, The Moth, Invisibilia, and others. I've tried but never liked any of the more interview, talk-style podcasts where the host(s) just kind of talk to people about whatever. I prefer my podcasts curated and produced; I need a topic to keep my interest; I can't pat attention to people just talking to each other.

What ideas have you heard, no matter the source, and thought, "I should try that"? Why did that particular idea resonate with you?

More PJ-isms from this morning

PJ trying to open a tin of lip balm on my bedside table: "I'm too little uh do it"

After "Effant" (her stuffed elephant) helped her climb onto our bed (actually me lifting her as she held elephant): "Effant help me kime up!"

Once up on our bed, after thanking Elephant for helping her up, she gives Elephant a big hug and says, "I love you, Effant." I said, "Can I have a hug?" so she shoved Elephant up under my chin. Because obviously I was requesting a hug from Elephant. I requested a hug from her too, and so she crawled up and hugged me and Elephant, exclaiming, "Hug all of you!"

Once she's gone out into the living room, she starts her usual chorus of requesting to watch something on TV. This morning it was "Watch Let It Go! I need Let It Go. I need uh watch Frozen!"

As she's eating her breakfast, she holds up a half-eaten slice of toast and says, "You a chair? Hello, chair! Chair in my mouf!" Then she held up a whole slice of toast and said, "It's like a frigulator! It's a toast. Now it's a frigulator! Now it's a toast!"
 

PJ Bathtime Conversations

Oh hi Elsa! Oh hi Frosty uh Snowman!
You're different. A good different! (Straight out of Frozen. All snowmen are Frosty the Snowman to PJ.)

Go to uh doctor? Sure.
Oh hi doctor! My boo boo hurts. I need some medicine.
Oh no, no medicine for you, I want to go home now.
Cover up my boo boo. Oh sank you, doctor!
Oh doctor, don't float away, doctor! Doctor, where are you? Oh there's my doctor! There's a bubble doctor!
(We don't know where the doctor conversation is coming from! A TV show perhaps?)

Oh excuse me, I'm talking here. (Paul & I have needed to say this to her frequently lately, so no mystery where she heard this!)

Penguin going to seep. Tuck him in, and here's a bear.
Let's go to seep penguin. One two free go seep.
Read a book for me penguin ok?
Go seep on my back? Sure.

More PJ Jabber

Almost a month after Christmas, PJ is still requesting "frosty snowman" and singing Jingle Bells to herself. This is how she says it:

Jin-ul bells, jin-ul bells,
Jin-ul aw da way way way!

But sometimes other phrases tip her into jingle bell territory. Tonight at dinner time, I heard "dinner time, dinner time, dinner all da way way way!"

And then in the bath, she pointed to my nail polish and said, "finner nails, finner nails, finner all da way way way!"

Then she requested another bubble beard:

PeneloJabber

Penelope's starting to string 3+ words together pretty frequently. A sampling from the past few days:

Pointing up to the owl ornament hanging from the small Christmas tree on our mantel: "Oh-lul tee up der!" (Owl tree up there!)

Indicating her huge creepy plastic inherited baby doll that we keep on top of her bookcase: "Baby seepin up der!" (Baby sleeping up there!)

This afternoon as I finished up working at our computer with the door closed, from the hallway I heard: "Mommy workin now!"

Other favorite exclamations lately:

"Oopsy daisy oopsy daisy!" when anything is slightly different than she thinks it should be

"AbaDABa!" which she uses to refer to her wand, and also says while waving her wand, along with "poke pocus!"

"Happy BOOTday!" which she says repeatedly while holding an electric candle, and also says to refer to the candle.

"No touchin!" and "One fin-doo" (finger), which she often says when she knows not to grab something...often while she's grabbing it anyway.

"Yight on!" when she wants to play with a light switch

"House" is anything she bunches together, such as puzzle pieces; the same puzzle pieces (or, last night during dinner, green beans) in a line become "train!"

It's also so fun to get her to repeat stuff, like when we spun her around in the office chair Paul got her to say "inertia" and "angular momentum"!

This whole toddler thing is pretty entertaining.