100 Days of Wonder – #24
Yesterday I said I would write about the places in Disney I got to for quiet and calm (other than the Winnie the Pooh ride already mentioned). I haven’t got the headspace to find the photos this evening so instead let’s talk about sleep! Disney beds are comfy! The towl art we got from the mousekeepers last time was spectacular – we got something new daily and it adds a spark of magic. But sleep. It can be tempting at Disney to be on the go all the time. If you do rope drop to fireworks it’s a long day and the number of overtired children and adults is scary! For me part of the magic is being able to come back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. I rarely lie in at Disney and I like the fireworks but rarely have a really late night, but I do like an afternoon nap. But the fear of missing out and not making the most of the holiday can be real. It can feel wasteful to have a nap and sleep away the holiday. Bon Jovi’s Sleep when I’m Dead comes to mind… But that doesn’t make sense to me. I have always been exceptionally good at sleeping. Apparently I slept through early as a baby, I used to sleep 12 hours a night easily, I used to nap (completely sober) in nightclubs as a student. I can sleep. I watch all these people rushing round Disney, ticking things off the list, insisting everything is seen and done and everyone is tired and miserable and not really enjoying anything. Sleep could help with that! In fact sleep helps with most things. I have stopped trying to reduce sleep time to get stuff done. If anything I need to sleep more if work is piling up and I need to be efficient and productive. And I know this, I have always known this and yet every now and again I seem to forget. That’s a warning and one I am now much better at taking seriously. Lots of sleep for me is essential. 8 hours a night minimum and every so often a few days of hibernation are blissful. If there is one thing I really do know I am good at, it’s sleeping! And that makes me really lucky because EVERYTHING is better after a proper night’s sleep – particularly if you wake up at Disney!
A DBA Week at Kielder Water
This last week I took a week off from work to spend time focusing on my DBA. We booked a lodge at Kielder Water from Monday to Friday to help get away from the distractions of every day life. This post is just a bit of a fun snapshot of how my week went. In a second post I have written more seriously about what I learned from the week and how far I got with my work.
Day 1
Day one of my DBA week was mostly travelling up to Kielder Water and settling in:
- Miles driven: 142
- Haribos eaten while travelling: 12
- Stops on the way: 1 (or 2 if you count bike pick up)
- Yoga:15 minutes
- Swim: 30 minutes
- Sauna/Steam Room: probably not long enough
- Chaffinches on the patio: 4
- Work emails seen: 0
- Work related emails that come to personal address seen: 4
- DBA word count: 976
- DBA Progress: Context chapter mapped and intro and some random stuff written
- DBA time spent: 2 hours
- LinkedIn Posts: 1 (and some comments)
Day 2
Day 2 is really the first full day of DBA focused work as most of Day 1 was just getting here. There was an element of settling into a rhythm but working in roughly 45 minute bursts seemed to work and having yoga or exercise breaks definitely helped. Day two stacked up like this
- Yoga breaks: 4
- Hot tub breaks: 1
- Run: 1 (45 minutes)
- Broken cafetières discovered: 1
- Cups of coffee drunk: Not enough (see above)
- Ginger nuts dunked in tea: 6
- Duolingo Spanish streak broken: 1 (but had a streak freeze left so it’s ok)
- Chaffinches: loads, about 30 all at once
- Great tits: 1
- Nuthatch: 1
- Blue tits: 2
- Wagtails: 2
- Osprey: 1
- Pigeon: 1
- Other birds: lots
- Other people: Almost none
- Red Squirrels: 0
- 45 minute writing bursts: 5
- 20 minute writing bursts: 1
- Random kinda editing on the sofa but faffing too: 90 minutes
- End Day Word Count: 4865
- Words actually written: More than that but they’re rubbish
- Tabs Open: Go Away
- Sworn at SQE: Lots and lots
- Glasses misplaced: hmph
Day 3
Today brought a change of pace. I slept later and then again started with some yoga. I had a first writing session full of faffing and not being able to locate some statistics I know I saw only a few days ago.The second session after a 10 minute yoga break was better and I used the stats I had to hand as placeholders for now knowing that there will be at leat two more reports before I submit the thesis anyway. I went for a run in the morning rather than in the afternoon today and that resulted in a 3rd really productive session before lunch. After lunch I struggled to get the focus back so after persevering for a bit I switched from writing to reading some of the materials I brought with me. So here’s how Day 3 looks in random numbers
- End Day Word Count: 6638
- Draft chapter: 85% complete
- References to sort: Ahem
- Run: 2 miles
- Tabs open: fewer than yesterday (not on purpose)
- Yoga breaks: 3
- Writing sessions: 4
- Book chapters read: 6.5
- Sticky tabs deployed: 29
- Ginger nuts dunked: 5
- Haribo eaten: 2 (packet’s empty)
- Times glasses were not where I was: Every time
- Red Squirrels: 0
- Rabbits by lodge: 3
- Annoying emails dealt with: 1
- Birds not noticed yesterday: 2 (Coal tit and robin)
- Hot tub staring at the sky: 20 minutes
- Confidence crisis: 1/2
- HIIT session: 20 minutes
Day 4
Day 4 has been less focused. I woke up very early, started with a slightly longer (still only 20 minute) yoga session and spent most of the time on the sofa rather than actually sitting at the table. I did less writing but more reading and thinking and mapping out structures for the literature review chapter.
- End Day Word Count Context Chapter: 7010
- Context chapter complete: 90%
- End Day Word Count Literature Review: 2483
- Book chapters read: 7
- Sticky tabs deployed: 32
- Highlighters dangerously close to empty: 1
- Red Squirrels: 0
- Ginger Nuts dunked 2
- Flapjack remembered, found and eaten: 2 pieces
- Yoga breaks: 2
- Hot tub breaks: 2
- Swim: 45 minutes
- Times sworn at Word formatting tools: too many to count
- Coffee forgotten about: 1
- Chaffinches within touching distance: 4
- Mice on patio: 1, possibly 2
- Invites to track Kath’s activity on Garmin: 2
- Feeling of not really having done anything: high
- Talking to given to myself: 1
- DBA progress: 1 near complete draft chapter and one chapter mapped out with headings and some quotes and text in place
Day 5
Day five was just packing up and travel really as well as thinking and reflecting time and a stop off at the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes. So really the question is: How much Cheese is too much Cheese? And I am still not sure I understand that question.
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