One Percent

Last month I talked about the fact that I was becoming housebound and was determined to change that.  Then I got COVID, setting me back into settling down.  This inertia wasn’t just laziness, although that’s what I said at the time. It was worse than that.  I won’t say I was depressed, because that’s not fair to people truly dealing with medical depression – it was more like a lethargy, a lack of interest and energy.  I had stopped exploring different parts of Orkney, I wasn’t replying to friends’ emails, I wasn’t going out for lunch or dinner, I was just staying in all day, watching movies.  You know that flower arranging evening that I enjoyed so much?  I came this close to calling my friend and saying I couldn’t come, just ‘cause I couldn’t be bothered.  (Glad I didn’t.)

I didn’t like how I was feeling, so I did what I always do when I need a boost – I looked for external stimuli to get me back up and out.  I know, I know, we should find our motivation from within.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  But that’s not so for me; I’ve said it before: sometimes I just need to watch a video or read a book to get back up-and-at-it.  (In fact, this is one of the reasons I’m sure it wasn’t depression – true depression is not resolved with a self-help book.)  During the first lockdown, my sister told me about a book she was enjoying, The Productivity Project, by Canadian author Chris Bailey.  Some of the takeaways from that book are things I still do today, pretty much every day, which help me stay focused and productive when I need to be.  Well, last year, the same sister told me about another book, Atomic Habits, which was all the rage.  Excellent, just what I needed.  I started listening to the audiobook on my walks with Scout a few weeks ago. There are a lot of good ideas, some of which appeal to me, and some of which just aren’t my cup of tea.  But that’s the thing about these books, you don’t have to embrace them fully; you can just pick the one or two or three things that resonate for you.

A couple of the ideas that author James Clear talks about are: habit stacking and improving things by one percent per day.  Well, I spent a lot of time thinking about these ideas, and my current daily pattern, and re-listening to chapters of the book, then I decided what changes I was going to make.

And it worked.  The changes I’ve made are going to sound so mundane to you, but I can honestly say that in the last three weeks I have been busier, having more fun, and getting more done.  For example, instead of having my morning tea before going for a walk, we now head out as soon as I get out of bed (the dog, you can imagine, is delighted).  The results of this are: by the time I walk, get home & have tea, and read the news, it’s still before 9 a.m. and I’m raring to get things done, around the house, or out with friends.  This is a photo I took on one of these walks of the cathedral just before sunrise – absolutely beautiful.   We’ve checked out parts of Orkney I hadn’t seen before – this walk to the Covenanters Memorial (below) was exhilarating.  And on Saturday night, I took the bus to Stromness, had an amazing dinner of scallops, lobster, and rhubarb pie (all local) and bussed home (the bus was so I could have wine).  Well, so what, you think?  How is forcing yourself to go out for dinner a big deal – you do that all the time.  Yes, but this time, because I wasn’t driving, on the way home I saw the Northern Lights.  Wouldn’t have seen that if I’d been sitting watching Netflix.   (I didn’t get a photo through the bus window, they were just a greeny line along the horizon.  But still.)  

 1%, each day.  Well done, me.