~~ Twenty for Twenty – February and March Journey ~~

Yes, I know am late in posting this!!

And its a long read – so brace yourselves!!

I always thought WFH would help me finally achieve a lot more things that I normally don’t get a chance to or time for – I always thought I’d gain those extra 4 hours that I always spend travelling to and fro office and I can productively use it to do so many things like read more, watch stuff on TV, write more, zentangle more, finish that draft of the novel, exercise more, walk more, take care of myself, help mom, spend more time with the daughter and etc etc… But what I had not expected was that, though not entirely, but most of those 4 hours, I’d still spend glued to the laptop trying to wrap up multiple more things at work.  Sometimes I even have my lunch glued to my laptop – I am not super proud about it. Hmm, it’s so true that grass is always greener on the other side, right? I do know that it’s all about setting those healthy boundaries for a better work-life balance wherever you are working from, home or office (it was also one of my goals this year), but at times like these, when everyone around is trying to cope up and enhance their applications to cater to COVID-19 restrictions, the work-pressure is no less.

Having said that, if given a choice and a chance in future, I’d like to still continue WFH when and if things return to normal.  I’d still opt for it just to avoid the travel. The constant back ache and body ache that I used to have due to the long travels are now missing (and of course, I don’t miss them at all) *Touchwood* . I felt different (good different of course) after a few days of WFH and it took me a while to realize that the difference was, in fact,  the absence of the constant aches in my body. 

Anyways, February and March have been quite interesting – isn’t it?  What with appraisals, bonus, the new facility movement(which sadly has added half hour extra both in the morning and evening to my travel travails from and to office), the Corona Virus scare, the scary numbers increasing day by day in India, the lockdown, the deaths, the sanitization necessities, the WFH, the “Am I audible?”,  “Are you able to see my screen?” and the sudden-cooker-whistling-in-the-background-during-a-call saga! Every year, we feel the that months just whizz by, and this year, it seems like the time has taken this concern seriously and has opted to move as slowly as possible so we can savor every single minute of the not-so-great-so-far year!

I know – that this might not be of interest in the light of current events – but I still wanted to go ahead and post about how I fared in the past two months…

20 for 20 – Career

Work life balance: Though I managed to keep the checking of emails/chats beyond working hours at bay most part of February, I couldn’t do it in March due to the WFH.

Get certified: There was progress (not huge) in February and I was able to complete an easy online certification. But no progress as such in March.

Appreciate often: Doing it as applicable 🙂

20 for 20 – Reading/Writing

Blog at least once a month (2/12): I did blog in February – but did not in March(blame the WFH :P)

One Blogathon per year (0/1):  Haven’t dared to start this yet.

Finish the draft of novel: Haven’t dared to start this yet.

Reading challenge(12/20): I know I know.. I wouldn’t say I completed 12 full fledged books or novels. Probably the actual count would just be 2 so far. The rest are short stories by Jeffrey Archer that I read back to back in February – they were just a couple of pages each, but goodreads shows them up as separate short stories, hence the skewed count.

Sync the external blog space with all the posts: Haven’t started this one yet.

20 for 20 – Others

Travel/Vacation :

Take a break per month to unwind – even if for a day (3/12) –  I did take a break as and when I thought I needed one both in February and March. This is something I am going to continue doing.

Explore local weekend getaways – try visiting at least 5 new places close by (0/5) – None in February and March. Just homebound and trying to stay safe 🙂

Plan proper vacations – Try to cover at least 2 from my bucket list (0/2) – Had finalized April/May to cover at-least one of the bucket list places. Now that is on hold. Probably is going to be on hold for a while, isn’t it?

Health :

Meditate: Thanks to the lockdown – everyday as soon as I wind up from office work, we all sit together and meditate for 5 minutes. Peaceful silent 5 mins of the entire day 😛

Walk at least for half hour every day – Again, thanks to the lockdown -I try to spend atleast half an hour walking every day – 24/366

Squeeze in 10 mins of yoga every day – Again, thanks to the lockdown – 7am to 8am or 7pm to 8pm has become the yoga hour of my day though I haven’t been able to do it diligently every single day – 18/366

Drink more water – This is something that I have been missing on since WFH. Need to consciously drink more water.

General:

Stay strictly offline after 10pm – Go to bed at a reasonable time  – 15/366 – I have not been doing this regularly 🙁

Declutter – Let go of unwanted stuff – I finally cleared one of my old bags with a lot of unwanted old receipts/documents. Many more such bags to go.

Watch a movie per week – 2/53 –  Movie – Flight

Go to a stand-up comedy show (0/1) – Nothing planned yet.

Resume dance classes – Restarted classes, however, the dance teacher went to her hometown before lockdown and hasn’t returned yet. There have been no classes since then 🙁

In addition to the above – I did strike something off my bucket list this year though I had not planned it to happen upfront. It happened by chance and made it all the more memorable 🙂

January – I always wanted to share stage with my daughter and dance with her. We both love dancing and we keep dancing together at home, but there was this teeny tiny wish to go on stage – Done 🙂

February –  I always have wanted to participate in a marathon – took part in a 3km fun run – with the Mr. and the daughter.

March – Work from home – Every mommy out there probably relates to the need of being able to work remotely – so she can just spend that few extra minutes with the family. I always was looking forward for an opportunity to WFH (though there are a lots of cons to it too).  Though it did not happen in the way I would have liked it to, I am trying to make the most of the time that I gain especially now where there’s no morning chaos, no rush to catch the bus to office, no rush to come back home, no travel and most of all, even if I feel tired at the end of the work-day – its still good-tired 🙂

As we have stepped into yet another month with quite a few uncertainities, let’s just bear in mind that “This too shall pass”.  Lets be positive about the current situation and move forward a day at a time!!

Before I wind up from this long boring post – can I ask for just one thing?

Please stay indoors and please stay safe!!