Spring Break Retreat Debrief

by | Mar 23, 2024

This past week, I took the week off of work. It was my institution’s spring break and it’s becoming a tradition for me to spend that week out of the office. And, as usual, I had some plans of what I wanted to accomplish during my time away from work.

Here is what I was able to make progress on during my vacation time:

  1. Added more words to my book project. This goal took some surprising turns. I started with one book project in mind and added several thousand words. Then I decided that part of what I added was actually another book project and I got that one to almost 12k words. Then I remembered some poetry I worked on years ago and I starting tinkering with that and added about 10 poems. Although I started with a word count goal, I found that it was just super fun to mess around with a bunch of different manuscripts this week.
  2. Bought new running shoes. I had planned to go to a running store to try on some different options, but I ended up doing some research and ordering a pair online. They fit well (so far, so good), so this goal was a success.
  3. Went to an indoor climbing gym. I had this as one of my annual goals to complete this year. I’ve never done any kind of climbing, but I’ve always wanted to try it. I went to a local climbing gym that features auto belays and had a fun time trying some different options there. While I don’t think this will be a new passion of mine, I’m really glad I tried it.
  4. Decluttered and dropped off donations. I took a break from my writing to drop off some donations this week. It’s always so satisfying to weed out things that I no longer need but that someone else might enjoy.
  5. Read. A lot. I had some pretty ambitious reading goals for March (see my TBR pile video here), so I built in a lot of reading time this past week. All in all, I was able to read 7 books in the last 5 days and make progress on several more books that I hope to wrap up by the end of the month.Edit LinkVisit Link
  6. Stayed on track with sleep and workouts. I was able to build in a little extra sleep time by not setting my morning alarm and I also kept on track with my daily workouts. One day, I also took a 5-mile round trip walk to my local library, which was a highlight of my movement this past week.

Overall, I had a wonderful week of vacation. What would you give your time and energy to with a week off of work?

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