Grand Productivity Experiment: Phase 1 Complete!

Yes, I’ve finished the first week of the Grand Productivity Experiment! Phase 1 was the Keystone Habit: in my case, getting up on time. I am pleased to report that I managed to get up on time six out of the six days in the experiment.

Santiago Rusinol Before the Morphine
Handy hint for morning laggards: start slowly with a cup of tea.
And did I see results, despite the shortness of the experiment? I think so. The first day was a howling success, but after that I slowed down a bit. I didn’t seem to be getting to bed any earlier, but I did sleep better, I think, being more tired. So not as influential as it might have been, but still some positive change there.

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Getting Things Done: A Season of Experiment

Tarore of Te Waharoa. Joan of Arc. Anne Frank. Elizabeth of Hungary. Sophie Scholl. Therese of Lisieux. Wilfred Owen. Mrs Beeton.

What do all these people have in common? They all died at a younger age than I am now, all having left their mark upon the world (whether they knew it or not).

Even if I live to be a hundred (unlikely), I am still nearly a third of the way through my life. And should I happen to die tomorrow (possibly more likely than the die-at-100 scenario, albeit still fairly unlikely), I do not think I will pop off content with how I have spent my time on this wandering orb.

General Thaddeus Kosciusko by Benjamin West
What am I doing with my life?
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It’s Too Darn Hot

It’s been 27 degrees C (80.6F) every day this year. This may not seem hot to you (particularly if you live with air conditioning) but it’s all a matter of what you’re used to, and this climate has conditioned me to mostly dwell in the teens.

Pris Cat cooling herself in the Brisbane heat
Unfortunately, my to do list for summer projects includes things like “clear out woodshed” and “stack cord of firewood” (that’s 3.6 cubic metres/130 cubic feet, by hand), and “dig drainage ditch”.

Due to our proximity to the longest day, the sun pours down for about fifteen hours at a stretch. Fifteen hours and three minutes, if you want to get precise about today. This means that it gets cool enough to go outside and get to work on the garden about ten minutes before it gets dark enough that you can no longer see the garden – about half an hour before bedtime.

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