Pages

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Observing

Observing ourselves and our environment was our charge for this week's Explore class at shimelle.com.

We took a look at where we sit, stand and lie down.  I have many sitting spots and I use them a lot!  It makes my resolution to Get Moving more important.  I've kind of let myself off the hook the last few months as I've been walking several times a week for exercise.  But there is still a lot of the day where I am sitting particularly when business is slow.  So the last few days I've made more of an effort to get up and move.

I've become much more aware of how I sit in the last year.  Last summer when I suddenly developed shoulder pain, I had to make some changes.  I soon figured out that typing with my computer on my lap wasn't going to work - either the laptop had to go up and I had to get an external keyboard or the laptop could be in my lap and I would have to have a monitor at eye level.  I did the latter for a couple of weeks until my cordless keyboard came.  It has been a big help.

During the last year, I've fixed myself a 'station' for my laptop and my most comfortable and ergonomic chair.  Also I got another chair for the living room after figuring out how few chairs I had in my house that really supported my back and neck. Now I can see how much I've learned that helped me and also helps me with design clients.

I also did the activity for class where I recorded everything I did for a day and when I did it.  The biggest thing I noticed was that I multi-task. I knew this;  I think all women do this. I just didn't realize how much.  Some of it was the day I picked was particularly busy but I know I do some of these things - like getting up during television commercial breaks to put clothes in the dryer or feed the cat - on regular days.  So there is a little of that 'get moving' going on :-)

There are things though that I just can't do together.  For example, I can't type and have the television on at the same time. I don't like background noise unless it is music and then only when I'm not trying to figure something out.  I tried to have a program on while I typed this blog post and had to switch off the TV so I'm not that kind of multitasker.  No, I'm the kind who will go back and forth between the dinner table and the sink to do dishes while my husband and I are finishing a game of Scrabble.  I just can't sit still and wait on him to take his turn.

I had another observation that will be showing up in my layout for the week, hopefully later today or tomorrow.



For this Play book page, I did a couple of things I don't normally so as we were encouraged to stretch ourselves.  I handwrote on my photos.  It was surprising how many pens worked on the photos.  Also, I took a bunch of sticker sheets and just pulled one sticker off each sheet for the title.  That is a little thing but it is unusual for me as I have to have a whole word from one type of sticker or chipboard.

It has been an interesting class.  I'm already observing a little more of my every day life.

4 comments:

  1. I hope you are enjoying the course. I wanted to do it, but am so busy at the moment I knew I would not keep up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great layout. I really like the way you did your word "Observe". You said it was not how you usually do sticker words, I think its great you went outside your box. I can't quite bring myself to write on pictures even tho I know I can have 100 copies if I want. Not like bygone days when copies were harder to come by.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This sounds like such a fascinating class. I think it sounds really interesting to record your actions for a day. That would be a bit of an eye-opener! Your page is great, and I love the writing on the photos. Also the title stickers. These are both techniques I never use, but I've seen them done and love the look.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a neat activity. I really like your layout. I too sit oddly when I am on my laptop, or when I work if I want to watch tv.
    This challenge really makes you more aware of how you do everyday things.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...