Dear Sunday Sparker,
Here are a few lessons that I learned, or was reminded of, during my recent two-week sick leave and after reading my journal entries from the first six weeks of the year:
1. I love my home, and I was glad to stay home, exactly like I felt during my 2024 maternity leave and, weirdly enough, similar to the seven-week quarantine in 2020. The spring scenes and the unfortunate siren sounds outside made the resemblance all the more uncanny.
2. The decluttering progress I truly dream of happens in larger chunks of time than I normally have. I made satisfying progress during my sick leave as I was able to move well. Sitting was the painful part after umbilical hernia repair surgery, and of course, I took many naps, just like my 19-month-old toddler.
3. This means that my daily decluttering habit takes care of incoming items to our home more than it reduces the amount of belongings we don’t use or love. Which also means I need to cater for significant decluttering progress on weekends and long holidays, when we don’t have big vacation plans.
4. Reading my journal entries made me realize I need to be more strict about my phone use during my extremely precious morning routine, and that I need to add AI apps to my block list, just like social media apps. Using them in the morning to answer some random questions I have is completely counterproductive. This realization makes the phone challenge I will start with you all in April all the more compelling.
The solution that I applied since last Sunday: when I wake up early, either at 4 am or 5 am, I use the strict mode on the AppBlock app and block everything until 6 am. That’s when I open WhatsApp to check in with my All Year Goals and my Sunrisewinners groups. I also make sure to check messages I might have missed on the mums’ group.
5. Working on the computer is nearly impossible during the daytime at home. It has to happen either super early before my baby boy wakes up, during his nap time, which could range from 90 minutes to 120 minutes, or somewhere outside the home. Which makes waking up early even more important.
6. Waking up early while on sick leave was hard for me, so I worked outside the home at the end of the sick leave once to finish a work task. It felt just like my good old magical Saturdays, remember those? And I realized that I could go back to them once every couple of months. The ROI of working sessions in new places is intensely beneficial, and I recommend it for tasks you keep putting off.
7. I made a pact with myself not to make dopamine-driven purchases in March to align with my financial (and self-control) goals for the first half of the year at least. What is a dopamine-based purchase? It’s checking Kindle deals and getting any potentially useful books on sale. This has become a compulsive behavior of mine lately, and I want to tame it.
8. And finally, I was happy to spend so much time with my son and stick his current routines to memory. For example, he needs his midday nap exactly five hours after he wakes up.
Which lesson resonated with you most?
I will be so happy to see a reply from you in my inbox.
