A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about trying to be more disciplined. It's been a week since I "gave up" socialising and whilst I was walking home from work I was thinking about the difference it has made, hence the post.
Of course, socialising is more or less what I do after work during the week, and I'm not some sort of social butterfly, busy every night of the week. That was 2011 - seriously! But it's nice to meet up with friends or go out with my partner a couple of times a week. Even if it's just a quick coffee and poke round the shops after work, going to see a film, or my book group.
Last week the only thing I did was go to a Tron night at the Watershed on Friday which was a lot of fun. This week I don't have any plans.
Although I am missing seeing people, I am quite enjoying the focus I am acquiring.
Last week I was very tired at the start of the week after a busy weekend and I just...went to bed when I wanted to. I didn't feel any pressure to have some down time because I'd already had some.
However, what I think has made the main difference is the telly. I have a tendency to put the television on when I'm in the living room, most usually as background to whatever I'm doing but I often like watching programmes and we all know the best ones start at 10:00pm. I've either not found anything I want to watch, or turned programmes off half way through - unheard of! Instead, I've been listening to CDs or the radio a lot more. Coupled with actually closing the computer and really thinking about the fact the whole internet will still be there tomorrow night, I've become a lot more productive. I've got a lot more energy for cooking decent meals and preparing for the next day or two, preparing lunches, and getting into bed a lot earlier. It feels good and I feel very focussed on the running training and now that I'm actually seeing some improvement there, I'm looking forward to training each day.
I also feel a lot calmer as I'm not stressing out about rushing around to get to where I'm going. I can't park my car near where I work at all so I have to get the bus to and from work. This usually takes at least half an hour compared to 15 or 20 mins door to door in the car. If I have things on in the evening I either have to face the bus or ask my partner to pick me up which he can't always do. Some evenings I'll rush home from work, rush some dinner and jump in the car. I'll find myself planning the evenings all day and at what time I need to have achieved what in order not to be late. Now that I've not had to do that for a week or so, I realise how much it was stressing me out. Mainly, it was stressing me out because I was worrying about being tired from running that morning, or how I was going to fit in a pilates workout after getting in from work and before going out and just wanting to sit down. I know once the pressure is off on training I can just enjoy things a little more for what they are and missing a workout won't be such a big deal.
As I said at the start of this post, I walked home today. It takes me about an hour to walk home and I usually don't bother as it takes so long and I often don't have the time in the day to spare. But today I did, and as I walked in too, that was my workout for the day. I did leave work a little earlier today so I didn't get in too late to prepare quite a time-consuming meal but I actually quite enjoyed walking back and so perhaps I will do it more often. It's good to see these small changes taking place which will, I hope, add up to quite a positive difference overall.
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