Leonland - Leon Barnard
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February 27, 2008
12 in 12 February update 3
February is nearly over and I'm teetering around my goal of getting out of bed before 8:00 19 times (I decided to throw out the day I was flying back from the U.S.). Two days to go and I'm at 17 times. But at this point I'm focused a lot more on what I've learned and how to carry this habit with me next month and beyond.
The last week or so I feel like I've really got the puzzle solved. It's still hard, but I feel like I know what I need to do to be successful.
My system:
- Wind-down earlier, start getting ready for bed around 10:00 pm, if possible.
- Be in bed with the lights off between 11:15 and 11:45.
- Set my alarm for the latest time that I'd like to get up (7:55). If I've done the previous two, I should wake up naturally sometime before then and I won't be disturbed by my alarm.
- Try to get through that initial feeling of coziness and inertia by knowing that I'll feel more energetic after a few minutes of being out of bed.
So, what do work on next month...?
I really should focus on exercising, but I'm just not sure if I'm ready for that one yet. I may focus on getting out to see more live music instead.
February 18, 2008
KorRn-tastic weekend
Just got back from a fun weekend in Germany. It was KoRn-tastic. Our friend Ray Luzier is the new drummer for KoRn and we traveled from Prague to Leipzig, Germany to see them play. It was great. We got the VIP treatment and watched the show from the friends-and-family-only balcony and hung out on the tour bus for a bit afterwards.
The most surprising thing was how much both me and my wife enjoyed the music. KoRn really puts on a good show and it's the kind of music that sounds great really LOUD. The German fans were so into it, the energy level was great, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. The opening acts, Deathstars and Flyleaf were also really good.
It's kind of a bummer to be back at work today. Here, there's no mosh-pitting, no crowd-surfing, stage-diving, or head-banging. How boring...
February 14, 2008
Memories from California
As I mentioned in my last post, I was in California last week for work. It was tough being away from my wife, but I really enjoyed a few things in particular while I was there.
- Food. Mmm... I went to In-N-Out three times, went to my favorite taco truck in Pasadena, had pho in the Bay Area, and ate some fantastic sushi at Katana-Ya in San Francisco.
- Listening to the radio in the Bay Area. I guess I miss American music more than I thought. All these songs that I would have passed up because they were so familiar to me in the past sounded great to me. I listened to every Red Hot Chili Peppers song that came on, which was often. I also spent a lot of time listening to 107.7 "The Bone", where I heard a lot of great classic rock that was ideal for driving to.
- A day at the beach.
Bay Area weather can be hit-or-miss in February, but we lucked out towards the end of my trip and had a clear, 70-ish degree day that we took advantage of. We drove down highway 1 and spent some time at the beach near Pescadero.
February 13, 2008
12 in 12 February update 2
Nearly half-way through February and I'm doing so-so with my goal of getting out of bed before 8:00 am 20 days this month. Eight out of 13 days I've been successful. Maybe I should've chosen a month with more days...
Actually, I chose this month on purpose since I knew that I was going to be in California for work for about 10 days and I knew that I'd have early-morning meetings. But what I didn't anticipate (but probably should have) was that there would be more late-evening get-togethers, since all the guys I work with would be staying at a hotel together and would want to make the most of their trip to the U.S. The night before my flight home, for example, we went out in San Francisco and got back around 1:30 am, so getting up after 8:00 am the next morning wasn't really a case of laziness, just a sane thing to do for my health and well-being.
I'm really glad that I picked this goal for this month, though, and I'm really hoping to keep it as a habit going forward. It has really helped me on the mornings when I did go to bed at a reasonable time the night before and maybe didn't have any morning meetings, when I could have stayed in bed until 8:30 or 9:00. In Prague, my commute time to work is about 45 minutes, so getting up after 8:30 means that I'll get to work after 10:00, which gives me less than 2 hours before lunch, which isn't really enough time to get into something at work. This is why getting out of bed before 8:00 is so critical. Also, many of my co-workers get in later, so having some quiet time at work in the morning (like right now) is nice for building some momentum for the day.
On a related note, maybe you can help me with a dilemma that I have about my goal for this month. So, on Sunday afternoon I left San Francisco on a plane to Amsterdam. I arrived in Amsterdam at about 11:00 am (Central European Time) on Monday. Which time zone should I use for Monday? I think that I was sleeping at 8:00 am (CET) on Monday morning, although I was somewhere over the Atlantic ocean at the time, which is one or two time zones behind Central Europe. Also, I wasn't in a bed, so I never technically got out of (or in to) bed on Monday at all. Should I give myself credit for getting up early on Monday, or just throw out the day and shoot for getting out of bed before 8:00 on 20 out of 28 days this month?
February 06, 2008
12 in 12 February update
As I mentioned before, my "12 in 12" accomplishment goal for February will be:
Get out of bed before 8:00 a.m. on 20 days.
I'm a little out of my usual routine this month, which has made this goal easier in some ways and harder in others. So far I've realized that I need to consciously decide to get out of bed, rather than just waiting for some kind of signal or indication from my body. In the first six days of this month, I've gotten out of bed before 8:00 four times. I guess two-thirds is right on target, but I'd rather exceed that and have a little extra in my pocket just in case.
As with my last goal, it's more about the take-aways and lessons rather than the result of the specific goal, so what I'm really hoping for this month is to learn how to get myself up and ready for the day; to capture it as a habit.
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