I am happy! Q1 had its ups and downs. I accomplished some things, and moved other things forward. And I am definitely ready for a fresh start.
(Note: spring break as a vacation palate cleanser of sorts between the Quintiles is *chef’s kiss*. I sort of think every Q should have a brief inter/reset session! Something to ponder . . .).
FEELING: Really good about this new quintile. I feel like my goals are generally realistic and I am genuinely looking forward to them.
FOCUS: This quintile, I want to feel less rushed. This is challenging with deadlines all around me (both real and self-imposed) — but I am going to do the best I can with this. I want to fiercely protect some deep work time AND have enough time for the life admin / kid stuff that comes up. This is going to mean saying no to things.
PHYSICAL: This will be a real marathon training block and I want to really give this upcoming race my all. Strength, workouts, nutrition, etc. I can’t control what happens on race day but I definitely want to get there feeling like I did my best to prepare for a strong effort.
(And I want to enjoy my first marathon in ~15 years!!!)
CONNECTION: Once again I find myself prioritizing family 1:1 time. This may never leave the list! It’s hard to fit in AND it’s worth it. I’ve had tons of time with A recently and some with G but not enough with C. Will work on this! It’s more challenging as our interests do not align as naturally (he loves sports and action movies . . .) but I know we can find some common ground.
Q2 READING LIST to come! I know I want to move a few titles from my Q1 list AND add some more. I am currently in the middle of Mad Honey (extremely addictive, will finish shortly) and The Covenant of Water (has morphed into a morning read even though it’s fiction — it’s SLOW but I do enjoy it and am determined to get through it!).
Rest of today
Hill workout
Take A to appt
Record BLP x 1 (April Q&A, coming at you soon!)
Work on email backlog
That’s it. I am really working hard at not overassigning myself on non-clinical days.
PS: I’ve received several emails asking for the April newsletter! It will be out by Friday. I love love love the enthusiasm!!
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Q1 went by so quickly. I can already see half way very soon, pointed by our travel plans. I will resume 1 on 1 dates when we come back. I need to find spending to look forward after the race, maybe a hiking trip or shorter races. I can’t not to run. Heheh… oh. I know, I’ll be enjoying the thrill of a marathon with you as you run your race in few weeks.
Q2! I’m ready. I’m not teaching at the moment, so I don’t have the same semester cadence to my year that I normally do, but I think there’s something nice about the fresh start to a quarter/quartile. I do Jan-end of teaching, end of teaching to kid summer holiday, summer holiday, Sept-November (teaching term), December. This quartile takes us through T’s last day of school.
The plan is to write, write, write for the next 3 months. I’ve got 1 R&R to work on, and another 1 imminent (we got the first review through which was glowing, which means reviewer 2 is going to savage it). My husband has a minor op scheduled mid-month, and I’m hoping he’ll recover pretty quickly.
On Monday, I sat down and made a list of months, and 5 bullet points, and started filling in with the big projects. I ended up with about 8 bullet points for April, and am feeling very stressed, so I’m trying to have a better sense of what I actually have capacity for. My current pace has been a journal article/chapter a month, and that’s not actually sustainable.
I am ready to detox my digital life. I bought the BLP virtual session (not sure I am referring to this correctly). But I really think I need to get rid of my Instagram completely. I know you have written about this several times and maybe a podcast as well. And was wondering if you could direct me to those episodes or posts where you spoke about this (your decision making and how you did it).
As a mother only to a son can I ask why you have to find common ground? Can you try to share his love for something? Maybe even mention to him that you want to learn more about x and want to understand his love for it? I’m now fully involved in hockey but when my son was young we started watching a specific yearly hockey game together that I really didn’t understand. To this day, he says “Mom we always watch xyz together every year”. Just a thought…
I think both can be valid! For example I could see both of us getting into some science fiction or fantasy reading which would be legit interesting for both vs me getting into his video games :). I do love watching him play soccer!!!
Sorry didn’t mean to imply that your way wasn’t valid – just wanted to share my experiences with a boy.
Oh I didn’t take it that way – I think you had a great point! Was just thinking maybe I can do a two-pronged approach 🙂 🙂
Gotcha! Good plan!
Reading this, I’m realizing my mind has kind of skipped over Q2, as in “summer will be here before we know it!” and making summer plans. I guess I need to sit down and focus more on the next two months! I’ll take a page from your book (literally) and focus on these six categories.
I feel like I don’t even know what “Q” it is and I have done zero “Q2” planning… and I don’t think I accomplished anything specific in Q1 besides just surviving and planning our trip and sort of “whack-a-mole-ing” things as they came up. HA. As I shared with you by text, I’m also kind of terrified of what April and May are looking like schedule-wise. Between a zillion kids activities (after a relative lull this winter; E didn’t have as much going on with no school sport in session, but tennis starts this week), the whole Mayhem thing and then planning another trip sooner than typical PLUS a bunch of events related to A’s 8th grade graduation and other extras + far away sporting events…. I’m anxious. Hahaha.
8th grade grad – that’s a BIG deal!!!!
After BLP academy I decided to try sextiles this year. It just makes sense with the French school calendar and so far so good. I’m about 2/3 through S2 and despite some major bumps in the road progress has been slow and steady (which is kind of my theme this year.) Even though it’s not the start of a new quarter/quintile/sextile I’m very happy to put March behind me and am enjoying the fresh start that April brings and looking forward to a little family vacation in about 2 weeks.
Sounds like a great Q2 plan! I’ve also just made my own Q2 goals, which I’ve posted on my new blog. On the same post, I explain my Australian Quintiles, if you want to check them out Sarah (I know you asked about this on a recent BLP episode).
[…] In this post, Sarah talks about Q2- she divides the year into quintiles instead of quarters, and now I can see why. Quintile 2 is the time between spring break and the end of the school year. If you have kids, or work in the school system, that is a very distinct period of time- once summer starts, you’re into a whole new schedule (Quintile 3.). But Quintile 2 deserves some attention, too! […]