Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

When it all starts to come back together.

I feel a bit like a Terminator who has been melted down (almost literally in the past heatwave) and I’m beginning to reform; small puddles of metal slowly magnetically attracting each other and coming back together.

This last week was a challenge.

It started with a visit from the extended family; a cousin, her husband and small daughter. My sister, her partner, and youngest also came over to visit with them. I did a Sunday roast – lamb and chicken, with all the trimmings. I’d bought a chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream which I jazzed up with some fresh strawberries. It was a wonderful visit. Once everyone departed, I did another quick clean over the downstairs, got the kitchen back to rights, and collapsed in a heap.

I’d sensibly planned and had booked Monday as leave to recover.

What I had not sensibly planned for was scheduling a team day on Tuesday down in London the day after. It was an early train to get there for a 9.30am start. It was a lovely day. We don’t often get the opportunity to see each other in person. We had a great team lunch. We finished right on time at 4pm. And then we all had variations of a hellish journey home. Mine involved a cancelled train followed by getting onto an overpacked train which was delayed forty minutes.

The next day brought another challenge; two virtual workshops, back-to-back meetings and barely any time for lunch. I survived. I had zero energy to do anything in the evening.

Thursday and Friday were a little better. Less meetings, but my body was beginning to feel the effects of the busy two days at the beginning of the week. I was able to make some good progress at work, but again, zero energy in the evening.

Yesterday I rested. Normally Saturday is cleaning day, but I moved all cleaning tasks to today. Yesterday I took it easy, and when I felt up to it, finished up a bit of an overhaul of my life plan which I had started the previous weekend.

Planning comforts me. It makes me feel in control of my life. I like knowing that I have a line of sight to what I need to or want to accomplish. I’ve created a beautiful miro board with a long list of things that I want to do. A miro board which shows me exactly how unrealistic I am about how much I can cram into a 12 week/3 month timeframe. Prioritisation of exactly what I need to achieve has to come first – that means my health.

I’ve definitely improved my diet over the past month. I’ve focused on hydration. I’m actually getting to bed a little earlier. But I avoid exercise like the plague. I sat down and interrogated myself about it, and I think it comes down to genuinely not enjoying exercise when I do it alone, and yet also not having the energy to get out to a gym class or join a netball or tennis club. Because I don’t like it and don’t want to do it, I have excuse after excuse for why today is not a good day to start.

I used to enjoy doing Wii until my Dad began to live with me while he’s in the UK. Taking over the living room to do my hour or thirty minutes of exercise was difficult and also very exposing. Anyway, having long ago given my Wii and all its accessories away, I investigated Nintendo Switch and wow is that whole thing an expensive way to go. So, I found an app which gamifies exercise and I will try that out this week along with trying some simple strength and stretching YouTube videos. Maybe they won’t be the answer, but maybe trying to find the answer keeps me exercising in the meantime, and that’s not a bad thing.

With health matters prioritised, my next focus is writing.

Well, working on the contract that I’m committed to doing but after that, writing.

There are so many writing projects which I want to do; there are so many ideas which I want to pursue. But I only have so many hours in a day, and more importantly, I only have so much energy to spend on writing. I’ve had to be realistic that finishing up the final edit on my first novel, sorting out a book cover for it, and getting it in a position to launch by Christmas is probably going to consume most of the next three months in my original fiction space. It isn’t even writing so much as it is about the business of getting a book to market. I will try to make progress on the second book, but this is a ‘nice-to-have.’

Moving onto fanfiction, I have like over a dozen projects. Another Dimension remains my focus until the end of August when it should be posted. I have published a subscriber only third chapter as an apology/thank you for readers having patience with me.

Finally on the priority list is my own business. I am keeping things passive mostly for the rest of the time I have this contract but I want to make sure I am keeping things ticking along in the background. Importantly I want to get the first products done while I have the cushion of the contract; a book and an online training product.

I’ve created an agile sprint plan with everything characterised as ‘must,’ ‘should,’ or ‘nice to have.’ Agile is a great way of planning; it prioritises time over scope. The scope to be completed within the timeframe is flexible, the timeframe is not. I’m hoping this method helps me see good progress over August.

What I am excited about though, is that I’ve actually had the energy to really focus over the past week on what it is that I am prioritising and actually building a plan which I think will work. My energy levels are still a challenge, but I feel like I’m making better decisions; that I’m slowly refilling the battery as broken and leaky as it is. Things are coming together in a way they haven’t all year and I’m delighted enough to dance.

Hmmm.

Maybe that’s an exercise experiment I should try!

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