Okay, I failed the challenge yesterday. Just like that, a week into the year. I was planning to finally get on a plane by 4pm and dive into reading stuff that I need for my project, but instead of that, the flight was first delayed and then cancelled. So, instead of cozy (as cozy as it can only get in a middle seat in the middle 4-seat section on a trans-Atlantic flight) reading, I was running all around the airport and standing in lines to get rebooked, obtain vouchers, etc. When I realized I am losing the time I should have been spending on the project reading, I tried to squeeze in some of it into the standing-in-lines, but the pings would all come at wrong moments. And when we finally settled in the hotel and finished the dinner that our vouchers got us - I guess I technically could take the chance to get all necessary pings if I worked until midnight (32.16% chance, statistically), but my goal is about conscious work, not about blindly staring at a page.
Takeaway lesson: don’t enter the periods of unpredictability like this without some buffer?
I know this is not “failing the challenge” as per the original rules, but I stipulated an additional rule for myself (because I considered it important not to think I can let myself derail for some non-essential reasons), so I am honoring it now. This also highlights to myself how remarkable it is that I made it through the previous year without derailments. @shanaqui, could you please move me to the “recognition” part?
But you guys will still have to scroll past my monthly updates, sorry about that.