2024: Week Two

Monday, January 15, 2024

Yes, this is a day late, but it’s been quite the week so I hope you’ll understand.

I had a really, really good week at work. I tore through my task list and made great progress on some important podcast and YouTube work. Plus some lovely client projects and interest from potential new clients.
I’m super excited about an upcoming collaboration with another psychologist. We’re going to co-host a podcast series all about psychological flexibility and how to develop it. Lots of work still to do, but I’m confident we’re going to have a great product at the end of it all. We did our first video podcast together a while back and we both agreed we worked well together.
I published my second Vlog on my work YouTube channel. It’s very much an experiment, but I can already see ways to improve the next one and keep improving as the weeks go by.

As per my previous post, I had some bad news on the wellbeing front. This is almost certainly going to lead to some hospital time, so intrusive tests, and then long term medication. If I’m lucky.
Despite this, I stuck to my new healthy habits. I’ve maintained Dry January (it’s just too easy!), avoided junk food and snacks, and made it to the gym and went out for a run on Sunday. I could so easily have rationalised a few beers and burgers to ‘cheer me up’ after speaking with the doctor. But I didn’t. Frankly, that’s the kind of crap that my body really doesn’t need right now.
I’ve veered between doom and gloom and a sense of optimism that I’m finally getting some medical attention. It’s fine to have doubts, it’s fine to feel some anxiety about it all. But it’s what I actually do that matters.

To take my mind off my wellbeing worries, I spent some more time planning my upcoming trip to Tokyo. In just over a month, I’ll be flying there with JAL and, for the first time ever, I’ll be experiencing their First Class cabin. I have no doubt it’s going to be amazing. But once I’m there, I want to extract as much fun out of the visit as possible. So my list of venues and experiences is getting longer by the day.
I just hope I’m able to make some progress on the wellbeing front so that illness doesn’t hamper my enjoyment of this amazing holiday. Or that it conflicts with a hospital stay…

I’ve continued to experiment with NotePlan and I think it’s going to stick. You can think of it as a kind of digital bullet journal. Each day as a note, but there are weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual notes too. You can have notes, tasks, reminders, events… pretty much anything you want to help you feel organised and avoid relying on your memory.
You can easily make links between notes (like in Obsidian and other PKM apps), but unlike Obsidian, the iOS apps actually work and synching is flawless. This is so important for me - I want to be able to access my project notes and plans from my iPhone and iPad when I’m on the move.
I’ve been using it to make a weekly note that contains my must-do tasks and activities. I fill this every Sunday for the week ahead. Then the following Sunday, I review the week with my reflections on how things have been.
I’m toying with the idea of starting a new travel blog. I love writing and I have some great trips lined up for this year. I’d like a fresh start and, based on some posts I’ve read about Substack in the last week, I’m looking at Ghost as one option. If you’re a Ghost user, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
I’m writing this from my study at home, as I’m working here this morning. I’m starting module two of my Japanese language course this afternoon, and it didn’t make sense to go to the office then all the way back into the West End for my lesson.

And that….was the week that was.