The Kat Files

The rule focused on for Week 3 of the Tranquility by Tuesday challenge was Move by 3 p.m. The purpose of this rule is to move by 3 p.m. by doing some form of physical activity for at least 10 minutes in the first half of the day (Monday-Sunday). Laura Vanderkam leaves it up to you how you move, but many of her suggestions are fitness-related activities (push-ups, sit-ups, walking, bicep curls, etc.). However, running around the yard with your dog or child can count as well. Personally, I think anything that requires your body to move, including grocery shopping, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, etc. can also count for this rule.

Vanderkam acknowledges this rule may not work for everyone; however, she states in a blog post, “Even if you get no other activity, building in a 10 minute walk break will allow you to focus for the rest of the workday. Choosing to move in the first half of the day means the day is less likely to get away from you.”

Is 10 minutes before 3 p.m. worth it? Well, 150 minutes per week of aerobic activity is the current health recommendation. You are almost halfway there with the daily 10 minutes before 3 p.m., so if you add another 11.5 minutes later in the day, you could hit the 150 minutes per week mark. Take it even a step further and go outside, add a few more minutes, and you can count it for Gretchen Rubin’s #Outside23in23 which is a perfect way to use the Strategy of Pairing to achieve those two goals.

Before the week started, I pondered the planning questions for Rule #3 that Laura sent us on Friday, 03 February and made a plan for the week.

• On average, how much exercise do you currently do per week? When do you exercise and what kind of exercise do you do? Sadly, I am currently NOT exercising – ZERO, ZILCH, NADA

• What sort of physical activity could you do for 10 minutes before 3 p.m. during an average day? Walk. I love walking, especially by myself while listening to a podcast.

• Think about today: When could you do this activity today? Between 10:00-1:00 (Friday)

• How about tomorrow? When could you do this activity tomorrow? Morning would be best. Ideally, I’d like to go walk after my cup of coffee, but before breakfast.

• What challenges might keep you from building more physical activity into your life? ME

• How can you address these challenges? I would really need to plan this 10-minute break into my schedule, but even then I’m not sure if I will honor it because it really depends on how involved I am in whatever I am working on at that moment in time.

RESULTS

I did awful with this rule. I did not plan on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I lived by my calendar and a to-do list if I even made one. I knew I was going out of town on Thursday, so I used every moment to get videos filmed and edited while prepping for an audition, and completing other necessary tasks. Now, that does not mean I did not move on a couple of evenings. On Thursday evening, Barry and I walked on the beach for about an hour before we went to dinner.

REFLECTION

• About how much exercise did you get this week? When did you do this and how much did you do? One day on Sunday from 9:00-10:00 if you count grocery shopping at Walmart on Sunday. I did walk on the beach for an hour with Barry on the night we arrived at the beach (this was not before 3 p.m.).

• What effects did you see in your life from moving by 3 p.m. most days? None, because I failed at this rule in the context of setting a specific 10 minutes per day to be physically active before 3 p.m.

• What challenges did you face in implementing this week’s strategy? My only challenge is myself and my lack of planning. Honestly, I really didn’t give this rule a second thought this week with everything I had going on as well as preparing for my overnight trip out of town.

• How did you deal with these challenges? n/a

• If you needed to modify this rule, how did you do so? I guess I modified it by including grocery shopping as a physical activity. HA!

• How likely are you to continue to move by 3 p.m.? Highly unlikely; however, instead of 7 days per week, I may strive for at least 3 days per week. No promises.

• Did you plan on Fridays? Unfortunately, NO.

• Did you observe a bedtime this week? YES! And, I feel like I am continuing to improve with this rule. On all 7 nights, I was ready for sleep by 11:20 (only 2 nights I read before lights out; 1 night I watched YouTube videos; 1 night I was posting a book picture on Instagram; 1 night I was doing some chores; 1 night I took my shower and went straight to bed; and the night at the beach I was downloading video clips from our traveling adventures onto my iPad). I did NO mindless scrolling on social media on any of the nights before lights out. Overall, better than the first week as far as scrolling on social media; my winding down routine is still a work in progress, and I was asleep no later than 11:20PM.

With completing Rule #3, I finished Part 1 of Tranquility by Tuesday, dear reader. I still believe planning on Fridays is the key, so I will try harder with this rule. I will still continue working on giving myself a bedtime, and I will try to move by 3 p.m. at least three times during the week. These first three rules are meant to “calm the chaos.” I am looking forward to the second part of the book as well as the next four rules. Happiness!

“Committing to move by 3 p.m. also nudges you to pay attention to how your energy ebbs and flows during the day, and the control you can exercise over your energy levels.” ~ Laura Vanderkam

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