#2017optimizationplan Daily Progress Report for 1/1/17
This is the first of 365 daily progress reports included in the Optimization Plan for 2017.
Physical
January 1 was both typical and a little bit disappointing to me on the physical side of things. Typical because it was Sunday — traditionally a veg-out day for me anyway — and because it was raining all day, which made activity that much less appealing. As a result, I slept more, ate more, and exercised less than I would have liked. But everything was still within acceptable boundaries, so overall not too bad for the the first day:
Food
Water
Sleep
I’m still working on an effective graphic for this one. Stay tuned…
I slept 6 hrs. 42 min. from a little after 10:00 pm until 5:00 am when my alarm went off. I got up — which is good — and got started on my Welcome the Day routine, but I was really, really groggy and slow. At about 6:30 am, I gave up the battle and went back to bed for another 1 hr. and 15 min. So my total for the day was almost exactly 8 hours.
Exercise
I’ll be honest here: I technically put in the time to say I exercised yesterday, but it was pitiful. 30 minutes on the elliptical at a lazy pace. I blame the weather, which is a cop-out, and I know I’ll need to overcome that inertia quick or risk failing in this aspect of my program.
Mental
Since Sundays are normally a lazy day, I tend to get a lot of reading done, and yesterday was no exception. I did some study in the early morning in preparation for my meeting and a lot of recreational reading in the afternoon (a free Kindle book called Anoms: The Awakening, which is pretty good so far.)
What I didn’t do is anything in the way of creative work. I didn’t write anything, which is obviously a negative since I’m working on developing a daily writing habit. Mood has a lot to do with my creativity, so read on.
Emotional
I’ve been struggling with a particularly nasty bout of depression for almost a week now. Sad, really, because I’ve been on vacation from SPROUT for the whole week (off for the Christmas/New Year’s break) and would have loved to have really enjoyed the time with family and friends. I did get plenty done in some areas, but accomplished little in others. And, frankly, I was a jerk to my family at times and had to apologize.
When I’m depressed, I sleep a lot because it feels better than being awake knowing I’m accomplishing little or nothing of value. I took a five-hour nap on Saturday afternoon. It also makes it really difficult for me to think/care about other people, even though logically I know that that’s a great way to help keep my mind off of my own problems. And with those types of tendencies comes guilt, which compounds the problem.
So… that’s how yesterday went from an emotional, mood perspective: I was drained, bummed out, lethargic, and generally pissy. But I know I was better than the three days previous, so I hope today includes more improvement.
Spiritual
Sundays are one of my scheduled meeting days. As of the first of the year we switched schedules from a 3:30 pm meetings to a 9:30 am meeting. Personally, I don’t mind but my son and my wife both struggle a lot in the early mornings, so this is tough on them. Which, of course, makes it tough on all of us to some extent. So, I’m sure there will be some difficult Sundays ahead of us.
But it means that a portion of my day is automatically dedicated to spiritual things, which makes it an easy win for tracking purposes. It’s the days when I don’t have something specifically scheduled that presents the bigger challenge. Yesterday, between preparation for and attendance at the meeting, I accomplished plenty of spiritual activity. I also completed my daily Bible reading.
One area I failed in, though, is prayer. For these purposes, I’m only counting personal prayers. When I pray for the family at meal time or for the congregation at a meeting, that’s different. What I’m trying to optimize in this case is my own personal habit of prayer. And I only did it once yesterday. Depression affects that too. Again, this is sad because prayer can and should be a tool to help relieve depression to an extent, but it’s tough when your first inclination is that no one cares.
Summary
In general, yesterday was not great, but not horrible either. For the first day, I think it includes some marked successes. Here’s the overall tracking report (see this post if it looks like Greek to you):
