100 Hours II: January Review

It’s now been one whole month into 2022, so it seems appropriate to see how my yearly goals are going so far.

Physical Health

I’ve done approximately 10.75 hours of trail running or hiking so far, and that’s not including parkruns, even though I said at the outset that they’d count. I’m slightly ahead of where I need to be with this one and feeling great about it - I’ve absolutely adored every second I’ve been able to spend out on the trails, and have been incredibly lucky to have other people to share those experiences with.

I’m also slightly ahead on my yoga goal, having done just shy of 12 hours so far this year. Today is the first day of the year that I haven’t done any at all, and that’s only because my leg is so swollen. I’ve just wrapped up Yoga With Adriene’s 30 day challenge, and am now debating whether or not to attempt to do yoga with other people.

Overall, I feel like I’m making progress with my physical health and that I’m in good shape; the yoga has helped my weak core and my tight hips, and the trail running has helped get my average heart rate down and my VO2 max up. So far so good.

Mental Health

I’m also doing quite well with my mental health goals - I am just about on track with my conversation goal, having had circa 9.75 hours worth of one-on-one chats with close friends, and I feel great for it. I would like to be further ahead though, and I still feel like this is something I need to be proactive about investing time in.

Perhaps unsurprisingly I am absolutely smashing my video game goal, although that is in large part due to being forced to take a few days off running because of my leg. Before then I was pretty much right on target, and now I am ahead by an absolute mile, having already clocked in 17 hours for the year. I always knew this one was likely not going to be too much of a challenge, but it is nice to know that I am carving out a good amount of time to do something purely for my own enjoyment, without the need for it to be productive.

My mental health by own my own standards right now is pretty good, although maybe by average people’s standards it’s merely so-so. I have good days and bad days, but the bad days don’t stick, which is the main thing, and some of the good days have been really great.

Career

My career goals have been slightly more of a struggle, but to be honest that is largely because I’ve been struggling to find much motivation at work so far this year. I’ve only managed 6.5 hours of preparation and active mentoring, which I am disappointed about; this is the thing I care most about my job, and I have allowed my sense of post-Christmas malaise to get in the way of it. I’m similarly behind on pair programming, with only 6.25 hours managed in January, but before last week this was at a pitiful 1 hour, so at least things are moving in the right direction.

Fortunately, I have dug back into 80000 Hours and this has helped me rekindle some sense of inspiration for my work. In the next couple of weeks I intend to complete their career planning exercise so that I can hopefully find the drive to thrive at work once again.