Weekly review cw 11

Intensive Training

During the first week of vacation, I had the opportunity to practice table tennis for two hours every morning—partly with my son, partly individually. The focus was on footwork and backhands. In the final training session on Saturday with a different coach than during the week, I could clearly see my progress.

I know that practice makes perfect and that quick feedback and correction for mistakes are the right learning methods. Knowledge and experience are two very different things. It's important that I feel and experience success. This gives me a lot of motivation to face the effort with a smile.

Newsletter Series Developed

Before and after training, I focused on my new newsletter series. After completing the four-part "Book Challenge," I wanted to prepare a new series that would serve as a common thread for the upcoming articles. I used the screenshot collection of wisdom on my phone as a guideline.

Over the past decade, I've mostly saved interesting sketch notes and cheat sheets from LinkedIn and let them rot in my photo album. I reviewed my entire photo album, exported the photos, sorted them, and clustered them by topic. My following newsletter, focusing on "Learning," will launch on Tuesday with this content.

Challenges

Days 29 to 35 of my push-up challenge were on the agenda – so far, I've been doing 100 push-ups daily. Some days, I experience a slight lack of motivation, but the thought of not letting the streak break helps immensely.

On Wednesday, I read a similar article to the push-up challenge, but about planks, and thought to myself: core strength and slowing down are good things. If you think time flies, do planks. Time certainly doesn't fly during this time—quite the opposite. That's why I plank for two minutes every day. I've been shaking tremendously since the first minute, but so far, I've managed to last the two minutes.

Focus on gratitude and distractions

During a lunch break, I watched the videos Millionaire CEO Explains: 5 Steps to Get Sh*t Done by Dan Martell and Before Bed & Morning—2 Habits That Will Change Your Life by Shi Heng Yi. Both gentlemen cover plenty of fascinating topics. I've chosen two aspects I want to incorporate into my routine.

First, I'm reducing distractions of all kinds, starting with turning off notifications on my laptop and phone. I'll continue to observe the coming period closely and note in my bullet journal what distracts me, why, and how to derive what I intend to change.

Secondly, I want to emphasize gratitude when writing in my bullet journal in the evening. I use the time in the evening to reflect on the day and structure the next day. This is good and helpful for me to usher in a restful night: afterward, I brush my teeth, read, and fall asleep. I'll also make it my goal to write down three things I'm grateful for that day. I'm curious how this affects my sleep and mood the following day.