Workout Journal

Today was one of the hardest days I’ve ever procrastinated working out. Starting from this morning, but really yesterday, I did not want to workout. So I spent the day finding every excuse and every activity possible that would prevent me from working out.

I spent my morning weeding, from 8:30 - 9:30 am. Then I made three bowls of berries, cocoa, nuts, and cinnamon. I watched some Tour de France. Once the tour ended, I actually watched a UFC fight, something I never normally do during the day. Then I started working on building a shoe rack while I waited for an electrician to come give me an estimate for some work I need done.

He never showed, so at noon I needed to figure out what else I could do. I returned my neighbors ladder and loppers, and chatted him up for a little bit. When I got back, I watered the garden beds and flower beds, and did some minor cleaning and weeding in the backyard. I still didn’t want to workout, so I made lunch.

Then I took my dog for a short walk (it was 100 degrees outside) and then drove to the store to pick up a poster we had framed and then grocery shop.

When I got home, I still didn’t want to workout, so I started working on the shoe rack again. But when it didn’t come together I grew frustrated and threw my hands up in the air and decided it was need to wait for another day. By this time it was close to 4 pm, still no workout and my girlfriend would be coming home soon.

I finally forced myself into the garage (my gym) to start. But instead of starting, I spent the first 10 minutes of my workout typing this up.

The silly part is I know that if I just did my workout first thing in the morning, the first time I told myself I didn’t want to do it, that I’d be done by now, and my day would’ve went a lot smoother. Instead of thinking of things to do to procrastinate my workout, I could’ve focused on doing things I wanted. But my brain was clouded with procastination.

The other silly part though is that although 10 hours later I can say I saw this coming, this morning I thought I’d be able to navigate it. Despite having this same experience numerous times in my life.

But, what can we do? Move on and try to improve. Which means, finally starting my workout. Cheers.

Be Specific

Details matter.

I’ve found that when I’m very specific about my objectives, the more likely I aim to accomplish them. Here’s a recent example.

I’ve had finalizing my itinerary for my trip to Switzerland on my list of things to work on for over 2 weeks and I haven’t touched it. It’s an enormous under taking in comparison to say building a workout, or writing up a meal idea. It involves research, looking back through photos and apps to piece together our trip and write about it. So instead of working on it, I’ve just kicked it to the side for about 2 weeks and just stared at my to do list: Switzerland Itinerary.

Today I decided I was actually going to work on it. I had enough of putting it off and I wanted to work on something different. I’d been putting a lot of work into everything but the itinerary, so I figured it would be a nice change of pace.

I started working on it as planned. I tried to get everything I had written up already organized. I had started a Scrivener file on it, and I had a bunch of notes stored in my phone, so I began by consolidating everything into the Scrivener file (something I always seem to do).

I created tabs for each leg of the trip (13 in total). Then I started pulling the information I had from my phone into its respective leg. Luzern details into the Luzern folder. Via Alpina: Stage 8 notes into the Via Alpina: Stage 8 folder. And so on.

After that, I went in, starting with Luzern (the first stop on our trip) and organized the notes.

Destination: Luzern

Days/Nights: 3

Restaurants:

Where We Stayed: 

So on and so on. 

Then I stopped, because I had this realization. Maybe if I had been more specific on my to do list I would have actually done some work on it.

To Do: Consolidate all of the trip notes into Scrivener and organize the details based on a set format.

How much more manageable does that sound versus, Switzerland Itinerary. That’s a big project. Whereas the former is a clearly defined plan. Something that sounds doable.

It was just one of those ah ha moments. Like wow I get it.

Anyway, I need to get back to consolidate all of the trip notes into Scrivener and organize the details based on a set format.

Thanks for listening.