Eliminating Daytime Distractions

I've fallen into a nasty habit and today I'm taking measures to stop it. You see, I spend a fair amount of time in the gym every week day. While my employer is supportive of this, my responsibilities are slowing increasing and with that comes increasing demands on my time. That means, if I don't want to impact my gym time I need to make sure I stay as efficient as possible when I'm not in the gym.

So what does that mean exactly? Well, there is a great video from Merlin Mann about Time and Attention. In it, he highlights the "time vampires" that just suck the productive hours out of your day. We all have them. For some people it's that stupid Minesweeper or Solitaire game that ships with Windows. I see others looking at Craigslist, eBay or my employers internal classified ads. Still others are using employer work time for writing blog entries. For me, its a combination of Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader and Gmail. Along with all the automatic notification crap that goes with them.

Thats right, I'm turning them off during the work day with one minor exception. Sorry. These things don't get me to where I want to be and only marginally produce anything thats truly worth while. Tough love here, but my life is more important to me than you think yours is to me. In other words, no I most likely haven't seen your latest tweet or Facebook status. Deal with it.

What's the one minor exception? Anyone who knows me will tell you my short term memory sucks. So the exception will be logging into Facebook to record my running/walking/biking into an embedded app called Voomaxer. Thats it. And no, I won't be commenting on other people's status when I do this.

I'm also going to become brutally efficient in Goggle Reader. I have 4 levels of RSS feeds, all sorted on relevant importance to me. Every night the unread count is going to zero in one of two ways. If I read everything by the time I get off the bus ride home or I hit "MARK ALL READ" when I get off the bus. So no, I may not have read your latest blog entry. Again, deal with it.

I'm already a fan of In-box zero so that practice will continue... both for gmail and work mail.

Now, my job does involve a fair bit of mass transit and walking from building to building. During those times and if not accompanied at lunch I plan to use my lovely iPhone for catching up on all this loveliness that people will inevitably tell me I'm missing out on.

One could ask about Instant Messaging. But one thing I've learned is that instant messaging can be a huge productivity booster when used properly. So I plan to leave it turned on for the time being. It can be an incredible time sink, so if I detect I'm in a rat hole of a conversation that really doesn't matter one wit to the outcome of my life... Don't be offended if I politely tell you I need to focus on something else. It'll prolly go something like this.. "Fascinating discussion but I need to work on something right now. Laters."

Speaking of which .... this has been a fascinating blog post but I need to go work on something else now. Laters......

News from the Infirmary

Its been a full three weeks since the Throwdown at the Shamrock and the recovery continues. I had intended to post an update last week but I simply wasn't in the mood. Admittedly, digging out of this hole had me a bit down.

Tuesday, the 17th, was the first full day without the air cast and 24hrs later I was trying out a stationary bike. I limited the time on the bike to 20 mins and made it almost to 4.5 miles. I also hit my target weight of 180 pounds that day. Thursday was a rest day to evaluate how the ankle felt. It was sore but not nearly as stiff. I still had a very pronounced limp. Friday rolled around and I unfortunately didn't get a workout in due to other family commitments. Following my usual fitness regimen I took the weekend off.

This past Monday I was moving around pretty good. I no longer needed meds for inflammation or pain and the limp was pretty much gone. I decided to give the elliptical a go and made 2.4 miles in 25 minutes. I could definitely feel some tenderness in the ankle but it was very manageable. Tuesday I gave it a day of rest but had to make the painful decision on if I would be ready for the Med City Relay. The decision to not run hurt and I'd be lying if I said it really didn't bug me. My heart so wanted to run in that relay, but logic seemed to point to me not being ready. The other team members needed to know they had a team that was going to be there on game day and I just couldn't make that promise. On Wednesday I logged 2.41 miles in 25 minutes on an elliptical machine and felt pretty good. Thursday was somewhat of a rest day. I actually did four sets of the Randy Couture workout. Friday a head cold had started to set in (and I hurt like hell from Thursday's workout) but I still made it to the gym and logged 2.49 miles in 25 minutes on an elliptical.

Yesterday the head cold was pretty tough in the morning. But by the time my lovely wife went out for a night on the town with her friend, I was back to feeling all right. This morning I felt even better.

Monday will be another day on the elliptical as a prelude to Tuesday. I have some time restrictions on Tuesday so the plan is to just utilize the treadmill for the first time since the throwdown. I don't plan to be running but I'm going to push the walk as fast as I can. Wednesday will be more elliptical work and back onto the treadmill Thursday - again at a walk. Friday will be more elliptical. I've been looking at some footwork exercises that I think I'll introduce next week too. I'm supposed to have a BodPod check on Wednesday, but I think I'll post pone that until later in the week as the head cold introduced a couple bonus pounds I want to shed.

Writing out load here, but I think I'll flip that routine the following week - elliptical (T, Th) and treadmill (M, W, F). All at a walk. The week after that I'll flip it back only the treadmill work will be at a run. If that holds true my first running attempt will be April 16th. A full five weeks since the run at the Shamrock. There will be an adjustment to my diet that week as I introduce Creatine supplementation to my diet which should help fuel my muscle growth.

Am I taking it slow? Sure. But my doctor (and several other runners) have told me if this isn't managed correctly it will be a nagging thing for quite some time.