I have been focusing on diet and physical activity recently - it's one of my yearly goals - and I thought that spring is the best time to try to establish some kind of routine. Considering my prior experience, I know that I definitely need to make the routine as simple as possible because the more steps and rules there are to follow, the lower the chance that I'll stick to it for a long time. For now, I’ve decided to continue running; it still feels great and pretty easy (oh, and my sleep is so much better!). My goal is modest - I run 5 km three times a week, but this amount feels good.

As for the gym, I think the hardest part for me is adjusting to its schedule because it’s only open for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening. I really like lifting, but as I said earlier, there are too many steps involved for me to stick with it long-term. So instead, I've decided to do two full-body workouts per week at the outdoor sports area near my house. I think that should be enough to keep my body toned, and maybe it'll be easier to maintain this routine for longer. This year, I'll try to keep training sessions short but intense - I found a lot of great calisthenics resources that I can use to adjust the program and make progress. (For comparison, last year I tried the opposite - I trained in the gym three times a week for an average of two hours. It was crazy.) I want to use the same approach for my diet - make it as simple as possible to maintain.

Besides sports, I've been hiking a lot recently; the weather is almost perfect now. I like finding a quiet place and sitting with my notebook for a while. Dumping everything on paper makes life feel easier. Maybe that's why I’ve been writing here less lately - a lot of my thoughts are already on paper, and it feels strange to write the same stuff again (it feels less sincere?).

One thing I wanted to share, though - after a conversation with Zak I’ve been thinking a lot about logging systems, task & time management, because I have a problem with it. If I want to do a lot of different things, I always try to make some kind of schedule to follow, but over time, it turns into torture. It feels daunting to look at a huge list of tasks in the morning even before having breakfast. So, I've been trying to come up with a system that works like a planner but without being tied to specific times or dates. The best idea I’ve had so far is just a list of activities I want to do this month, with empty cells where I can mark “points”. Each time I do something from the list, I add one point to that row. This way, it's easy to see any imbalances and fix them quickly. I also wrote down a desired quota near each activity to have some kind of goal (e.g. 12 running sessions, 8 learning sessions, 8 guitar practice sessions, etc). I’m not sure if it’ll work well, but I’ll try this method throughout April and see how it goes.

This past week, I continued tinkering with plants and went searching for some cuttings outside. The climate here is pretty warm, so we have a lot of succulents, ferns, vines, and herbs that can happily live in a pot indoors. So far, I’ve found two different types of ivy - Hedera helix and Hedera colchica (I’m not great at plant identification yet, so feel free to correct me; I’ll leave pictures) - both with beautiful dark green leaves. I took a few cuttings and also grabbed a few parts with roots to see which method works better since I’ve never planted ivy before. This weekend, I’m planning to head to the mountains and try to find something else - my biggest goal rn is succulents.

Currently listening to:

• Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)
• Oscar Jerome - The Fork
• Perfume Genius - Glory