This March I Will...
Replies
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WOW!@themedalist,that is some really interesting insights into memory skills. I’m glad your first exercise in memory work went well at your meeting. I struggle every semester to learn my students’ names. I can do it more easily if they have put a profile picture, and here on MFP, I also remember folks by their profile picture before I get to know them well.2
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Wow, spring must be in the air with those hosts of golden daffodils--everyone is going gangbusters!
@77tes , your immersion in poetry is so inspiring, especially all the Wordsworth--"I Wandered Lonely..." always comes into my head at this time of year, and it's one of my favorites, but I haven't looked at "Tintern Abbey" in ages, and it is so gorgeous. I'm curious about your own poetry-writing--are you experimenting with different forms, or are you more of a free verse lady? I love playing with meter, but I'm awful at it. (A few years ago--well, quite a few years ago now I worked through a lot of the exercises in Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled [which I highly recommend if you don't already know it]), but I never got beyond very clumsy efforts.
My habits have been mixed--the new skincare routine is lovely, a very relaxing wind-down before bed. However, for the keeping-a-nice-dining-table goal, I made a mistake by not getting my husband on board before committing to it, so although I've been doing a better job of setting the table properly, I'm still having to shovel clutter off of it, or to a corner of it. And now that I articulate that I see that there is a simple remedy, which is just to tell him that that's my goal for the month! Sheesh!
Oh--we are also woodstove-stokers here, and much as I love the coziness, I'm looking forward to the end of the burning season--still at least a month away for us, I think.
@jroslyn , my poems take no special form. In the past, I’ve tried doing a haiku each day, but those are too dependent on an image. So mostly I just try to express my thoughts concisely in somewhat poetic language. My poems are nothing great and mostly they are clumsy snippets, but expressing myself is good. I haven’t read Stephen Fry’s book, but when I took a poetry writing class in grad school, my professor (a great poet herself) suggested a book of poetry writing exercises. I didn’t find them particularly helpful, but workshopping my attempts with my classmates was most enlightening, and by the end of the semester I had a 15-20 poems I was not embarrassed to share. I’m really enjoying the Wordsworth. I actually downloaded an anthology of Romantic poems from the library and am enjoying reading it a lot.3 -
my poems take no special form. In the past, I’ve tried doing a haiku each day, but those are too dependent on an image. So mostly I just try to express my thoughts concisely in somewhat poetic language. My poems are nothing great and mostly they are clumsy snippets, but expressing myself is good. I haven’t read Stephen Fry’s book, but when I took a poetry writing class in grad school, my professor (a great poet herself) suggested a book of poetry writing exercises. I didn’t find them particularly helpful, but workshopping my attempts with my classmates was most enlightening, and by the end of the semester I had a 15-20 poems I was not embarrassed to share. I’m really enjoying the Wordsworth. I actually downloaded an anthology of Romantic poems from the library and am enjoying reading it a lot.
The Romantics do seem right for spring--especially young Wordsworth, with his enthusiasm for nature. 15-20 poems in one semester is truly impressive! I hope the "clumsy snippets" (which probably aren't so clumsy at all) are helping free up your voice and get back in that groove.
I got the table truly cleared off tonight. I think tablecloths are nicer for dinner, but I can't handle that much ironing right now, so we are using floral mats and napkins, and I got out some better-than-everyday plates for Sunday dinner. This week's flowers are a mixed bunch that we've arranged in a heavy Bohemian crystal vase, and tonight I even managed to decant the wine into a pretty Italian glass pitcher. The food is the same as we'd be eating anyway, but I do appreciate it more when we serve it properly and sit down for a relaxed meal.4 -
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@themedalist Your post is so meaningful! And, after reading @77tes poem, I was wishing for a LOVE button!
Denise, I think you've just labeled my behavior during the past couple of my photography "work" sessions. It's so much easier to edit and organize my photos than it is to learn and then to remember so many new things about my camera. I've been doing necessary things, but definitely taking the easy route. My OK Plateau has got to go! There are videos I can watch but there's so much information I don't know what to start with and I feel overwhelmed. I will systematically break it down into sections and then take notes and then practice, practice, practice. I've got this...it just hasn't sunk in yet!!
I completely understand feeling overwhelmed, @nebslp. I’m trying to learn just one thing a day about GarageBand and I’m writing these one things down. That way I can see progress. It’s a lot like losing weight. Take it slow and steady. Focus on just today. Keep at it and it will happen.2 -
7 hours 4 minutes of sleep last night.
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Since our group is focused on building new habits and skills, I thought I’d post a few excerpts from Moonlighting with Einstein by Joshua Foer. It has really changed my thinking about skills building and practice.
Deliberate Practice and the OK Plateau
In the 1960s, the psychologists Paul Fitts and Michael Posner attempted to answer this question by describing the three stages that anyone goes through when acquiring a new skill. During the first phase, known as the “cognitive stage,” you’re intellectualizing the task and discovering new strategies to accomplish it more proficiently. During the second “associative stage,” you’re concentrating less, making fewer major errors, and generally becoming more efficient. Finally you reach what Fitts called the “autonomous stage,” when you figure that you’ve gotten as good as you need to get at the task and you’re basically running on autopilot. During that autonomous stage, you lose conscious control over what you’re doing. Most of the time that’s a good thing. Your mind has one less thing to worry about. In fact, the autonomous stage seems to be one of those handy features that evolution worked out for our benefit. The less you have to focus on the repetitive tasks of everyday life, the more you can concentrate on the stuff that really matters, the stuff that you haven’t seen before. And so, once we’re just good enough at typing, we move it to the back of our mind’s filing cabinet and stop paying it any attention. You can actually see this shift take place in fMRI scans of people learning new skills. As a task becomes automated, the parts of the brain involved in conscious reasoning become less active and other parts of the brain take over.
You could call it the “OK plateau,” the point at which you decide you’re OK with how good you are at something, turn on autopilot, and stop improving. We all reach OK plateaus in most things we do. We learn how to drive when we’re in our teens and then once we’re good enough to avoid tickets and major accidents, we get only incrementally better. My father has been playing golf for forty years, and he’s still—though it will hurt him to read this—a duffer. In four decades his handicap hasn’t fallen even a point. How come? He reached an OK plateau.
Psychologists used to think that OK plateaus marked the upper bounds of innate ability. In his 1869 book Hereditary Genius, Sir Francis Galton argued that a person could only improve at physical and mental activities up until he reached a certain wall, which “he cannot by any education or exertion overpass.” According to this view, the best we can do is simply the best we can do. But Ericsson and his fellow expert performance psychologists have found over and over again that with the right kind of concerted effort, that’s rarely the case. They believe that Galton’s wall often has much less to do with our innate limits than simply with what we consider an acceptable level of performance.
What separates experts from the rest of us is that they tend to engage in a very directed, highly focused routine, which Ericsson has labeled “deliberate practice.” Having studied the best of the best in many different fields, he has found that top achievers tend to follow the same general pattern of development. They develop strategies for consciously keeping out of the autonomous stage while they practice by doing three things: focusing on their technique, staying goal-oriented, and getting constant and immediate feedback on their performance. In other words, they force themselves to stay in the “cognitive phase.”
Amateur musicians, for example, are more likely to spend their practice time playing music, whereas pros are more likely to work through tedious exercises or focus on specific, difficult parts of pieces. The best ice skaters spend more of their practice time trying jumps that they land less often, while lesser skaters work more on jumps they’ve already mastered.
Deliberate practice, by its nature, must be hard. When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend. In fact, in every domain of expertise that’s been rigorously examined, from chess to violin to basketball, studies have found that the number of years one has been doing something correlates only weakly with level of performance.
Regular practice simply isn’t enough. To improve, we must watch ourselves fail, and learn from our mistakes. The best way to get out of the autonomous stage and off the OK plateau, Ericsson has found, is to actually practice failing. One way to do that is to put yourself in the mind of someone far more competent at the task you’re trying to master, and try to figure out how that person works through problems.
The secret to improving at a skill is to retain some degree of conscious control over it while practicing—to force oneself to stay out of autopilot.
The most important lesson I took away from my year on the competitive memory circuit was not the secret to learning poetry by heart, but rather something far more global and, in a way, far more likely to be of service in my life. My experience had validated the old saw that practice makes perfect. But only if it’s the right kind of concentrated, self-conscious, deliberate practice. I’d learned firsthand that with focus, motivation, and, above all, time, the mind can be trained to do extraordinary things. This was a tremendously empowering discovery. It made me ask myself: What else was I capable of doing, if only I used the right approach?2 -
themedalist wrote: »I'm now trying to learn something about Apple's GarageBand software and I'm pleased with how many helpful You Tube videos are out there.
My grandkids play around with Garage Band. It seems to be a lot of fun and there’s a lot of things you can do with it. Good luck!
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Daily intake of water
(3-1) 4 bottles
(3-2) 6 bottles
(3-3) 5 bottles
(3-4) 4 bottles
(3-5) 5 bottles
(3-6) 7 bottles
(3-7) 5 bottles
(3-8) 5 bottles
(3-9) 3 bottles
(3-10) 4 bottles
(3-11) 5 bottles3 -
Yesterday I read several poems from Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology, but I didn’t write any poems. Today I read a few poems by Mary Oliver, and I wrote a poem titled “Not a Swarm. “2
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Log every bite:
3/2: 😊
3/3: 😊
3/4: 😊
3/5: 😊
3/6: 😊
3/7:
3/8:
3/9:
3/10:
3/11:
3/12:
11 days with no added sugar! I am starting to find tangerines to be almost too sweet. That is incredible to me.
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@themedalist Thanks for sharing the Deliberate Practice and OK Plateau excerpt. I’ve read it several times and take more from it each time. I actually made a sign for the room where I study...Practice Deliberate Practice. The line below that one says Break the OK Plateau to remind myself to keep working on the hard stuff even though it’s really hard! Eventually it will become the easy stuff and I can move on to the next hard thing.
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Today I met my weekly goal of being focused and having more structured days. I’ve been studying my new camera settings for 2-3 hours a day every day I’m home as a means to that end. Three days ago I decided to be deliberate and focused in my studies. Instead of just reading my book for “dummies” and trying to remember everything, I took notes and drew diagrams of every side of my camera. I discovered there are over 35 buttons, dials, and ports to learn about. No wonder I was feeling overwhelmed! I reviewed them today and then I made 2 charts that show all of the possible menu options, one for automatic modes, the other for creative modes. I will be able to locate dozens of options with a glance at my charts instead of trying to remember everything or fumble through every category to find what I need. I’m hopeful that with practice eventually I won’t need them. Working hard and fingers crossed!3
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PackerFanInGB wrote: »Log every bite:
3/2: 😊
3/3: 😊
3/4: 😊
3/5: 😊
3/6: 😊
3/7:
3/8:
3/9:
3/10:
3/11:
3/12:
11 days with no added sugar! I am starting to find tangerines to be almost too sweet. That is incredible to me.
What a victory you’re experiencing this month! Logging has been helpful to many people. Looks like it’s working for you❣️
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Today I read a couple poems by Sylvia Plath and wrote a poem “Dance with Me.”
@themedalist , those passages are so important. Deliberate practice- it sounds like my kids piano teacher. @nebslp , I’m glad they have helped you with your goals. Wow! That camera does sound complex!
@PackerFanInGB , you are doing so great!4 -
@themedalist
Read that whole excerpt & I think it explains my backsliding with my weight for first time in at least 22 months. I hit an OK Plateau.
SO, I need to get out of autonomous...by...
1) focus on my technique
2) stay goal-oriented
3) constant & immediate feedback on my performance
1) I increased salads to daily! I will keep that up. Ditto more fish & legumes.
I am tracking meals I have sugar, decreased from 3 to 2, per day. Tomorrow I will whack it back to 1 sweet thing.
Reduce sodium back under 2ng daily.
2) this is the biggie. I need to get my “fire in my belly” feeling again.
Ok, scale is continuing to drift up. I will lose 1 lb by the end of March.
3) I will post my food at each meal BEFORE eating anything.
I will look at my macros & micros each evening.
Thank you for this & ty Group! You all make me a better person. ♥️
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MadisonMolly2017 wrote: »@themedalist
Read that whole excerpt & I think it explains my backsliding with my weight for first time in at least 22 months. I hit an OK Plateau.
SO, I need to get out of autonomous...by...
1) focus on my technique
2) stay goal-oriented
3) constant & immediate feedback on my performance
1) I increased salads to daily! I will keep that up. Ditto more fish & legumes.
I am tracking meals I have sugar, decreased from 3 to 2, per day. Tomorrow I will whack it back to 1 sweet thing.
Reduce sodium back under 2ng daily.
2) this is the biggie. I need to get my “fire in my belly” feeling again.
Ok, scale is continuing to drift up. I will lose 1 lb by the end of March.
3) I will post my food at each meal BEFORE eating anything.
I will look at my macros & micros each evening.
Thank you for this & ty Group! You all make me a better person. ♥️
THIS GROUP!!! I LOVE YOU♥️❤️♥️
1) Sodium 1316 mg ✅
Sweets 0 ✅
Fruit/Veg 6.5 sev ✅
Calories 241 deficit ✅
2) Got the fire in the belly again. Was honest with myself. My digestive track has not been as happy. My stomach did the >153 lb increase. Hit my top Weight 155.
Committed to getting under 153.
3) posted food & checked macros/micros prior to eating ✅4 -
@MadisonMolly2017 , those are some terrific accomplishments! That fire in the belly is so much better than an unhappy digestive track.
I haven’t checked in for a few days, but I’ve been reading poetry every day. The last few days I’ve been reading Gerard Manley Hopkins. I haven’t written any the last 4 days, but this beautiful spring weather has been so inspiring.3 -
PackerFanInGB wrote: »Log every bite:
3/2: 😊
3/3: 😊
3/4: 😊
3/5: 😊
3/6: 😊
3/7:
3/8:
3/9:
3/10:
3/11:
3/12:
11 days with no added sugar! I am starting to find tangerines to be almost too sweet. That is incredible to me.
This is great to hear, @PackerFanInGB. I like your observation the tangerines are almost too sweet. I think our taste buds get used to a level sweetness or saltiness in the foods we eat. They get habitualized to that level of sugar or salt. Dialing down the level of sugar and salt has helped me a lot. It’s my new normal. I used to love jelly beans. Now I can’t eat them at all. The fire hose of sugar that gushes into my body from a handful of jelly beans makes me instantly jittery and feeling sick. Just not worth it.
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Today I met my weekly goal of being focused and having more structured days. I’ve been studying my new camera settings for 2-3 hours a day every day I’m home as a means to that end. Three days ago I decided to be deliberate and focused in my studies. Instead of just reading my book for “dummies” and trying to remember everything, I took notes and drew diagrams of every side of my camera. I discovered there are over 35 buttons, dials, and ports to learn about. No wonder I was feeling overwhelmed! I reviewed them today and then I made 2 charts that show all of the possible menu options, one for automatic modes, the other for creative modes. I will be able to locate dozens of options with a glance at my charts instead of trying to remember everything or fumble through every category to find what I need. I’m hopeful that with practice eventually I won’t need them. Working hard and fingers crossed!
This is fantastic, @nebslp! I’m glad you’ve set a deliberate practice schedule for yourself and created 2 charts to help you navigate the 35 options you camera has.
Such a great post!
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MadisonMolly2017 wrote: »MadisonMolly2017 wrote: »@themedalist
Read that whole excerpt & I think it explains my backsliding with my weight for first time in at least 22 months. I hit an OK Plateau.
SO, I need to get out of autonomous...by...
1) focus on my technique
2) stay goal-oriented
3) constant & immediate feedback on my performance
1) I increased salads to daily! I will keep that up. Ditto more fish & legumes.
I am tracking meals I have sugar, decreased from 3 to 2, per day. Tomorrow I will whack it back to 1 sweet thing.
Reduce sodium back under 2ng daily.
2) this is the biggie. I need to get my “fire in my belly” feeling again.
Ok, scale is continuing to drift up. I will lose 1 lb by the end of March.
3) I will post my food at each meal BEFORE eating anything.
I will look at my macros & micros each evening.
Thank you for this & ty Group! You all make me a better person. ♥️
THIS GROUP!!! I LOVE YOU♥️❤️♥️
1) Sodium 1316 mg ✅
Sweets 0 ✅
Fruit/Veg 6.5 sev ✅
Calories 241 deficit ✅
2) Got the fire in the belly again. Was honest with myself. My digestive track has not been as happy. My stomach did the >153 lb increase. Hit my top Weight 155.
Committed to getting under 153.
3) posted food & checked macros/micros prior to eating ✅
Love this update, @MadisonMolly2017! I’m delighted to hear that the deliberate practice and OK plateau concepts resonated with you I think you got a great plan of action.
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@MadisonMolly2017 , those are some terrific accomplishments! That fire in the belly is so much better than an unhappy digestive track.
I haven’t checked in for a few days, but I’ve been reading poetry every day. The last few days I’ve been reading Gerard Manley Hopkins. I haven’t written any the last 4 days, but this beautiful spring weather has been so inspiring.
Great progress on your March poetry goal, @77tes!2 -
I am so excited to hear that the concepts of deliberate practice and the OK plateau have struck a chord with so many of you. For several years now, I’ve been tracking my guitar sessions on a phone app and at the end of the year it tallies up the total number of hours and I can see each day that I practiced. It was 90 hours 18 minutes in 2018...pretty much 15 minutes a day. But since I want to progress as a guitarist, I’m now also jotting down what I’m working on and how it’s going. Fortunately the app also has a notes section so I can record that information in the same app.
For me, there are some limitations. If I spend my whole practice session focused on my weak spots, this wonderful hobby that I love is going degrade and start feeling like work. It won’t be sustainable. Also my current focus, the D chord, uses the 3 thinnest strings and my fingers become raw and painful very quickly if I spent too much time on the D. All things in moderation. Now I’m spending the first 10 minutes or so focused on my deliberate practice, and then I switch to playing whatever songs I feel like playing. Seems to be a good balance for me.4 -
My March goal of getting more sleep is progressing, albeit slowly. I’ve increased my daily sleep average by 20 minutes, but I know I can do better. This week we shutoff the wood stove for the season so I no longer have the 11pm feedings. But I still wrestle with myself to actually get to bed by 11pm. Even though I feel better when I get more sleep, there are so many things I like doing and ideas I have that I think I’d like to pursue that I have trouble settling down. Little kid on Christmas Eve syndrome.
My February goal of getting more daily steps is going great. I’m sold on the StepBet concept. I’m averaging about 3000 steps more a day. The fear of losing $40 has motivated me to walk more every day. When this 6 week session wraps up next week, I’ll get my $40 back and about $5 to $7, my share of the winners pot.2 -
themedalist wrote: »My March goal of getting more sleep is progressing, albeit slowly. I’ve increased my daily sleep average by 20 minutes, but I know I can do better. This week we shutoff the wood stove for the season so I no longer have the 11pm feedings. But I still wrestle with myself to actually get to bed by 11pm. Even though I feel better when I get more sleep, there are so many things I like doing and ideas I have that I think I’d like to pursue that I have trouble settling down. Little kid on Christmas Eve syndrome.
Good for you for making progress on this goal in this first week of daylight savings time. I have a fairly regular sleep schedule, but this week it was a struggle to go to bed early enough to make that one-hour adjustment. It also messed up my eating schedule—it doesn’t seem like an hour should make that much difference, but as I get older, it seems harder to adjust every year. I had less sleep than usual this week (and poorer-quality sleep), so brava for that 20 minute average increase!2 -
I love all the things about habit and practice—too many to quote here, but thanks to all for the insights. “OK plateau” is such a helpful idea.
I had a pretty good week on my little goals for this month—nice table settings (though I miss the candles now that we are eating dinner by daylight), and I’ve expanded my skincare routine beyond my face to hands, elbows, and feet. Just in time, as the springy weather is getting me out in the sun more, where I notice with horror the appearance of my skin—and it’s also just in time for sunscreen season. I realized I’d gotten slack about sunscreen because I hate the stuff I have right now, so I’m shopping around for something that works but doesn’t make it feel like my skin is being suffocated.4 -
I love all the things about habit and practice—too many to quote here, but thanks to all for the insights. “OK plateau” is such a helpful idea.
I had a pretty good week on my little goals for this month—nice table settings (though I miss the candles now that we are eating dinner by daylight), and I’ve expanded my skincare routine beyond my face to hands, elbows, and feet. Just in time, as the springy weather is getting me out in the sun more, where I notice with horror the appearance of my skin—and it’s also just in time for sunscreen season. I realized I’d gotten slack about sunscreen because I hate the stuff I have right now, so I’m shopping around for something that works but doesn’t make it feel like my skin is being suffocated.
Good for you for making such great progress on your goals this month, @jroslyn! Yes, more daylight would mean fewer candlelight dinners. And I hear you on the sunscreen. I’ve never found one that felt like my skin could breathe.2 -
Daily intake of water
(3-1) 4 bottles
(3-2) 6 bottles
(3-3) 5 bottles
(3-4) 4 bottles
(3-5) 5 bottles
(3-6) 7 bottles
(3-7) 5 bottles
(3-8) 5 bottles
(3-9) 3 bottles
(3-10) 4 bottles
(3-11) 5 bottles
(3-12) 5 bottles
(3-13) 4 bottles
(3-15) 4 bottles
(3-16) 6 bottles
(3-17) 5 bottles
(3-18) 3 bottles2 -
So frustrating—I had a reaction to something—probably that awful sunscreen—and broke out in sore red blotches on my face and can’t use any of my nice skincare products. So the skincare habit is reduced to extremely cautious washing and careful dabbing with plain lotion for now.
On the plus side, our table settings have been lovely, mostly because once I actually mentioned to my husband what I was doing, he started keeping the table meticulously clear of mail and such, so I’ve been free to do the fun part of choosing linens and things. (Currently bright red mats with cheerful cherry-print napkins.) It’s a good reminder that I just need to communicate clearly in order to get all kinds of support.3
