There are certain things we know does us good and others that we’ve just become so used to that we’re no longer thinking about the impact they have on us. In my case the former is running and the latter is email notifications.
As I wrote about yesterday this week I’ve tried to minimise disruptions but also maximise being in control of all the little things that need doing. I know, very well, that I need to exercise in order to have peace of mind and be able to think. If I don’t exhaust myself physically my thoughts run around in my head and refuse to sit still. It makes things a lot more effortsome (yes, I know that’s not an actual word) and does the opposite of creating a feeling of calmness and being in control. Therefore I need to exercise and more precisely run.
The thing I didn’t know but realised this week was how nice and “quiet” it’s been since my phone decided to log out of iCloud somewhere in between London and Copenhagen. My emails, contacts, notes, photos, well everything was on my phone when I turned if off as my flight to Denmark took off last Wednesday. When I turned it on again and sat on the train from Copenhagen airport to Lund, Sweden I realised that all of it was gone. I checked iCloud and noticed I was logged out so I logged back in and everything returned, apart from my emails. I still need to set up my three email accounts on my phone but I just simply haven’t got around to do it yet and it’s been quite nice. Sparrow is still connected but requires that I refresh the app to learn if I have any new mail. I know I can turn off email notifications on the iPhone and perhaps I might just do that in the future.
It’s not until now that I’ve realised what a distraction email notifications can be. As someone who don’t like to have a lot of unanswered emails in my inbox I tend to, not long after I receive them, read, answer or flag them to deal with them later. It’s been a lovely break not to have the notifications popping up alerting me of yet another unanswered email that I “have to” deal with. Instead I’ve checked my inbox after a focused time of working, properly taken care of the ones I need to answer and deleted the rest. And that’s also helped creating a more calm and in control feeling this week. As for the exercise bit I know that my best bet is to get it in first thing in the morning for now until I properly find my routine and working part time has settled somewhat. Besides, that is my preferred time of day for a run anyway and makes breakfast tastes all the better afterwards.
Tomorrow – Day 251 | Here comes Friday
Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/lululemonathletica/5076461543/in/photostream
