◼️ Tom⇒maths

How to Use a Spreadsheet to Batch-Upload Events to Your Calendar

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 21:52:00 +0000

The other day I posted...

One of my favourite things I've discovered this year is using a spreadsheet to batch-add things to my calendar. Such a timesaver!
— Tommaths (@TeaKayB) June 1, 2020

... and a couple of people asked me how to do it.

To some of you this may be the most obvious thing on the planet, but I only discovered it earlier this year and - my oh my - has it saved me some time. My day* job sees me visiting various places around the country and I keep track of it all in my calendar. As any self-respecting nerd is driven by unknown forces to do, I often put a bit of effort into finding out how I can get the tech around me to do some of the more boring jobs so that I have more time available for doing the interesting things. I'd list some potential use-cases for this spreadsheet-to-calendar trick but I figure that if you've read this far you already know what you want it for.

Before we get started, a disclaimer: Yes, there are plenty of other articles detailing how to do this and I visited many of them. I haven't referenced any of them because it was about six months ago so I've forgotten which ones I used, none of them gave me every piece of information I needed, and there were a few important stumbling blocks that weren't mentioned at all.

Ingredients

You will need:

1 spreadsheet. Any flavour (Excel, Google Sheets, Calc, etc) will do as long as it can save/export as a .csv** file type.
A calendar, such as Outlook or Google Calendar. Others may work but I haven't tried it with them. It won't work with the paper one hanging on your wall.
Some Things that are Planned.

Method

1.

Get the things that are planned and put them in your spreadsheet. You'll need a column dedicated to each aspect of the Thing that is Planned: Start date, Start time, End time and Subject are what I consider the basics and should be used as the column headings in any spreadsheet with aspirations of becoming a series of calendar entries. Just like this:

You may want to put in an End Date column if any of your Things that are Planned span multiple dates, you party animal.

Some Potential Stumbling Blocks That Nobody Told Me About:

Things are slightly different depending on whether you're uploading to an Outlook or Google calendar: Outlook is less fussy with regards to the column headings: when you upload (we'll get to that) it'll take a guess at which column is which then give you the option to check and correct if necessary. There's no such luxury with Google: if you haven't used the correct column headings it'll just fail with an unhelpful error.
There are other column headings you can use but I'll leave that as a web-search exercise for the reader: anything that you can put in its own field in a calendar entry needs its own column in the spreadsheet.
You'll want to make sure that the cell formats in your spreadsheet are correct: times need to be formatted as times, and dates formatted as dates, or else things may get confused.
Similarly, you'll want to make sure that your default date formats in both your spreadsheet software and your calendar are the same: US format in one and UK in the other and you'll have events all over the place and lots of cleaning up to do.

2.

Save your spreadsheet as a ".csv" file.

The details are slightly different for each format of spreadsheet, but the process is generally similar:

Click the File menu, choose Save As... and in the dialogue that pops up choose the option with CSV in it in the Save as type: list before clicking Save (see the red ring in the screenshot below***).

If you're doing this in a Google sheet you'll need to choose File 🠒 Download 🠒 Comma-separated values.

3.

Upload! It's a bit different for each service:

Upload to Google Calendar:

Load your calendar (duh) and open up the settings (the gear icon towards the top right of the window)
Choose Settings
In the menu bar down the left-hand side of the window, click Import & export, and then Import.
Click Select file from your computer, use the dialogue box that pops up to navigate to the file you saved in the previous step, click Open.
Choose which of your calendars you want to upload to using the drop-down box below that.
Click Import.

Job done! If it doesn't work, chances are you've hit one of the stumbling blocks mentioned previously.

Upload to Outlook Calendar:

Note: I don't use Outlook at home so I'm doing this from memory. Let me know if I miss anything out... Also, I haven't done it via the web version so if the instructions are markedly different please feel free to write them down and send them to me!

Open Outlook (duh) and click File 🠒 Open 🠒 Import.
A wizard will pop up! Not the Arthurian kind, unfortunately. Choose Import from another program or file and click Next.
Choose Comma Separated Values and (you guessed it) click Next.
Click Browse and in the window that pops up navigate to, select and open the file you saved earlier. Click Next.
Select Calendar then click Next.
If you're feeling lucky you can Finish here, but I would recommend clicking Map Custom Fields to make sure Outlook has properly worked out which column you want to map to each field in your calendar entries. You can make some adjustments if necessary. When you're happy that all is right with this little piece of the world, click OK and then Finish.
A progress bar will pop up and then...

Job done!

4.

Presto! Your Things that are Planned are now in your calendar!

Final notes

This is really easy, so if any of the steps above make it seem less so, please get in touch and we'll work out where I've made a boo-boo in my instructions.
Having said that, if your calendar gets messed up, or you delete the entire internet, or damned-near set off World War III by accident it's nothing to do with me, OK?
If you're thinking "but this will take longer than just putting them in my calendar manually!" then just put them in your calendar manually.

* In reality it's quite often an evening job, and a weekend job as well.

** The two asterisks aren't part of the file type. They're indicating a footnote. This one. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that "csv" stands for "comma separated values". Put simply, it saves your spreadsheet as a plain text file in which the contents of cells are separated by commas (obvious when I put it like thtat, no?) instead of the cell borders that you see in an actual spreadsheet. You won't ever see it in that form though.

*** You'll see that I, dirty, stinking, disorganised wretch that I am, saved it to my desktop. You don't have to do this; you could be a better person. Just remember where you put it because you'll need it again in a minute.

Another Puzzle for the Today Programme!

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:02:00 +0000

I set another puzzle for Radio 4's Today programme and it was featured this morning (Monday, 6th April 2020).

It goes like this...

"Doc note, I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod."

Bletchley Park Codebreaker Peter Hilton constructed this impressive 51-character palindromic sentence, allegedly in response to a challenge set by a fellow Codebreaker. Palindromic numbers work in the same way: the same digits in the same order whether you read them backwards or forwards.

What is the 51st Palindromic number?

You can find the puzzle (with a link to a solution) on the Today Programme's website, here.

As with many puzzles the solution is debatable depending on some starting assumptions. Feel free to discuss your assumptions (and how these might change the answer) in the comments. Teachers, I'd love to hear how you might use any of the ideas or topics featured (even tangentially) in your own teaching!

Also, please post your favourite palindromes!

Research Poster: Digital Mathematics Resources and Museums

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:49:00 +0000

Back in September I asked for some maths teachers to take part in the trial of a mathematics resource that I had created and was trialling as part of the work towards my PGCert in Digital Leadership.

With massive thanks to the teachers and students who took part, I completed the project which formed the second assignment towards the first of two modules in the course. Our brief was to present our report in the form of a research poster (with a creatively loose definition of what that means).

Here's my final submitted piece (click to view it embiggened).

Page 1: Academic Poster. Click to enlarge.

Page 2: Appendices

M2, M4, M6, M8, Motorway!

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 17:30:00 +0000

I've always* wondered how far it was possible to go staying only on consecutively numbered motorways in the UK. I've also been looking for a reason to fiddle around with Graphviz since the eternally helpful Colin Wright pointed me towards it a while ago.

So I found a database of the UK's motorways and created a graph:

Graph generated using dreampuf.github.io/GraphvizOnline

Labelled nodes represent the motorways themselves and edges represent a shared junction between two motorways. It strikes me that this is almost exactly opposite to the way that motorways actually work.

From this diagram, it appears that the answer to my original question, "how far is it possible to go staying only on consecutively numbered motorways in the UK?", with the further refinement that "far" means the number of motorways experienced rather than an actual distance, is rather more boring than I was hoping for.

Unless I've missed something (please correct me if so) it appears to be...

... wait for it...

Photo by Jack Hunter on Unsplash

That is:

, , .

Sorry, folks.

Another interesting** thing that pops out of the graph above is that there are no disconnected subgraphs: it's possible to visit all of the UK's named motorways without spending time on a road that isn't a motorway.

What else have I missed? Can anything interesting be gleaned from the graph above? Does anyone have an ideas about how it could be used educationally? Are there any questions (deep, shallow, important or who-cares) that might be clarified by such a graph?

* Well, not always, but, y'know.
** To me, that is. If you find it interesting too, I'm chuffed to bits. If you don't, I don't need to hear about it thanks. What are you even still doing here?

Optimistic October: Day 31 - What Gives You Hope for the Future?

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 21:00:00 +0000

It's the end of the month, the end of Optimistic October, and it's Hallowe'en...

And what is scarier, I ask you, than...

But anyway. Rules are rules:

Friends. I have a small (ideal) number of excellent friends.
Science. It's awesome and if we do it properly we can solve all sorts of problems.
The belief that most people, deep down, want to be better.

Optimistic October: Day 30 - Purpose

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 22:45:00 +0000

I'm... supposed to have a sense of purpose?

I'm never quite sure what things like this mean, but that just gives me an opportunity to define it however like, doesn't it?

I guess a "sense of purpose" is when you feel like you're doing something that has a point to it, and I'm feeling that this is more of an external thing than an internal one: giving something back to the world, rather than making personal achievements.

I feel most like I have purpose when I'm teaching, so a goal set in response to today's challenge should probably have something to do with that. Generally, my goal is...

To be the best educator that I can be.

... but that's not exactly measurable. Part of my desire to undertake postgraduate study was so that it could provide some structure in working towards this goal, so I'm going to work damned hard on completing that as well as I can. As well as this, and at least equally important, is my network of educators that I keep tabs on via Twitter. I don't engage as much as I probably should with the broader teaching community, but I learn a lot, keep up to date, and am forced to think (and re-think) about various aspects of teaching and education. It is genuinely an excellent tool through which to build a learning network on various themes.

Optimistic October: Day 29 - Problem?

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 20:25:00 +0000

Perspective is everything.

I have far too much to do. I'm working on a new perspective for that and will get back to you just as soon as I am able. Please leave a message after the beep*.

* With some ideas about how to find a new perspective on that.

Optimistic October: Day 28 - This Week's Plans

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 19:19:00 +0000

It's important to have goals! This week is going to be a busy week so my top priorities are as follows:

Prepare for my (working) weekend away.
Do some reading for my assignment, making notes and noting references.
Lay the groundwork for next week's work.
Keep tabs on my mental state, and make sure I take the time to switch off for a little while each day.

Optimistic October: Day 27 - Be Kind to Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 20:09:00 +0000

I really need this one at the moment. I'm a bit behind on, well, everything, and I keep having to stop me beating myself up (not least because it takes time away from doing something productive).

I'm trying to take day 26's advice. And day 24's. Day 21 as well.

Anyway... I'm off to work on day 20.

Optimistic October: Day 26 - Same as it Ever Was

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 21:50:00 +0000

This question might not work for every situation, but it illustrates something which is, I think, a good habit to get into.

A question I (try to remember to) ask myself when I start worrying about something is...

Can I do anything about it?

If the answer is "no," then it's a moot point and not really worth worrying about (and the problem now turns into "how do I chill myself out about it?")
If the answer is "yes," (and that means I must have at least some idea of what I can do) then the problem turns into...

Should I do it?

If the thing that you can do is easy and less stressful than the problem you're worrying about, then just do it. Why wouldn't you?
If the thing that can be done is more difficult or more stressful than the problem, some of the questions I ask myself when deciding whether taking (or avoiding) any given action is worth raising my blood pressure over include:

Will anybody to die?
Will anybody be subject to specific torment, anguish, pain or discomfort?
Will I get into trouble?
Is it really my responsibility?
Is this more important than other things that require my time and/or energy?

These all boil down to various versions of the question does it matter? If the answer to all of these questions is "no," then I've got some ammunition to convince the whinier parts of my brain that, actually, we're all good here. We've got space. Breathe.

If the answer to any of them is "yes," then maybe it's time to go to red alert*.

Even in that situation, however, I find it's absolutely vital to remind myself that...

Panicking, flapping, and beating myself up is not going to achieve anything at all. 20 minutes spent breathing, calming, relaxing and planning is time much better spent than the same 20 minutes spent doing those other things.

Whilst writing this post I've had the following stuck in my head, placed there by the original challenge as worded in the post's image:

* Even if that does mean changing the bulb.

Optimistic October: Day 25 - Plan a Fun Activity

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 18:03:00 +0000

I'm posting this a day late, but as this is yesterday's post I think I can use today's activity to answer it...

** does that wibbly-woo thing from Wayne's World **

Tomorrow I'll be heading off to Waddesdon Manor with two ex-colleagues and a current one. This particular team tends to meet up once (or so) a year (or so) for an educational day out, which means cake, coffee and catching up.

I've been to Waddesdon before (a couple of months ago, actually), but tomorrow we went* to a part that I hadn't discovered before: the wine cellars. Here are a few photographs that I will have going to have taken from that bit tomorrow:

* I'm writing this from the future, remember? Keep up.

Optimistic October: Day 24 - Priorities, Priorities

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 21:35:00 +0000

I don't know about you, but I'm really really busy at the moment, and it doesn't show any signs of letting up. Life seems to thunder by at a terrifying pace; deadlines fly at you from the darkness, and in some cases just keep going past, receding again into the distance.

I cannot get it all done.

But you know what? We don't have to. We can't get it all done, and we shouldn't bust a gut trying to. We have lives to lead. What's the point if we're working so hard all the time that we can't sit back and experience life every now and then.

Part of the challenge is working out what needs to be done, and what can be set aside if needed.

Of those things that need to be done, then who needs them to be done? Are they things that we have to do or can someone else get involved.

Even with those things that we alone can do, and need to be done, we still have some wiggle room:

What needs to be done to our absolute best standard?
What can be done to a lower standard?
And what's just, when it boils down to it, a box-ticking exercise and doesn't deserve our hardest and best work.

What matters? Hint: It's not always what other people tell you to prioritise. It's up to you.

Optimistic October: Day 23 - Share an Inspiring Idea

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 20:50:00 +0000

Similar to day 17, this one.

Today I shared:

Some ideas regarding my in-progress second postgraduate assignment.
Inspiration sparked by a dance project I'm involved in (!)

How about you?

Optimistic October: Day 22 - Show Me Yours?

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 22:52:00 +0000

You can read mine, but only if you show me yours.

My first guitar lesson in years.
Got an A in my first ever postgraduate assignment.
I was surprisingly gripped by rehearsal performances of a maths, music and dance project that I'm part of.

Optimistic October: Day 21 - Not Great Expectations

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 22:16:00 +0000

You're never going to please everyone all of the time, but a lot of us beat ourselves up trying to do just that.

My mental health journey has to a large extent been about reducing the amount of time I spend floating around outside myself and making assumptions about what everybody else thinks - and expects - of me. In fact, when I'm at my lowest I tend to describe how I'm feeling as almost literally not being inside my own body.

What you think other people think is not what's important. What's important is:

That you're doing what you're doing for reasons;
That those reasons are good ones

Of course, everybody's ideas of what entails "good" reasons can be very different, so I think a decent number 3. to put on that list is you can justify those reasons and a number 4. could be and you're open to redefining them in light of new knowledge, understanding and evidence.

I find that it's a good idea to remind myself now and than that one of the reasons that what I think other people think is not important is that if I'm honest I don't and can't know what other people are thinking. Most of the time the unrealistic expectations of other people turn out to be my own unrealistic expectations of myself projected outwards on other people.

I'm sure they wouldn't be very impressed with me if they knew...

Optimistic October: Day 20 - Joy in Completion!

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 20:36:00 +0000

I tend to work on the least-close-to-finished thing, which means I have a million and one projects on the go, and none of them are finished. One easily visible case of this is in the list of books I'm currently reading. It takes me ages to finish anything... Though I did finish one the other day, so I'll say that's today's challenge complete!

Also, tomorrow I'll be playing my guitar for the first time in around a decade as I was gifted a Lead Guitar Masterclass for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Excellent!

On Day 14 I set myself some goals and I promised I'd revisit them to see how well I'd done...

Here they are, colour coded: successfully completed goals are green, completely failed are red. Somewhere in the middle are yellow (not quite!) and orange (well, I started...)

From Day 1:

Do some work towards my assignment.
Leave work on time at least once this week.
Go to the gym at least once this week.
Not exceed my self-imposed budget for the month.

Look out for positive news and reasons to be cheerful. (Day 2)
Work on prioritising things properly (from Day 3).
From Day 4, be more conscious of my effect on the environment; call out antisocial behaviour when I see it; be an ally to decent people everywhere; seek out sources of positive news; and to challenge negative nonsense whilst championing the harmless stuff.
From Day 5: read a few pages every night before bed.
Extract something optimistic from the bad stuff (Day 6)
Get on it. (Day 7)
From Day 8, sandwich bad news between bits of good news.
Not join in with that blaming lark. (Day 9)
Look for the good in people around me (Day 10)
Re-frame problems into opportunities. (see Day 11)
Do some reflecting. (Day 12)
Be spontaneous. (Day 13)

There's only one outright failure there... And a few bits of green. I'll chalk that one up as a success with things to work on...

Optimistic October: Day 19 - What are you Looking Forward to?

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 19:49:00 +0000

It can be very easy to dwell on the bad things that might happen, or the boring or less fun things that we know are just around the corner. But there are always some good things coming up too.

Some things I'm looking forward to are:

A guitar lesson (it has been ages since I played, and I got a masterclass for my birthday!)
My first ever visit to America!
Big MathsJam!
A good night's sleep...
... and a little lie in!

Go on then: what's in store for you?

Optimistic October: Day 18 - Pat-On-The-Back Time

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 18:30:00 +0000

Oh, this is a good one.

I've been a little down this week, struggling against an invisible and ill-defined weight on my shoulders. Everything's seemed a little foggy and I have been (metaphorically) wading through treacle.

But there are things we do every day that, even though it feels like we're taking them in our stride, are actually little wins. Some of them are things we find tricky but push through them anyway. Other things are things that we may genuinely find easy but other people wouldn't have a clue.

Here are a few of my "actually, that was pretty good going" wins for today (if you get through them, send me some of yours!):

I went to London by myself.
I walked from Euston station to Southwark, having deliberately got an earlier train to do so.
I spent the day with strangers, immersed in unfamilar surroundings and concentrating on things that were far outside my comfort zone.
I walked back again...

Pretty pleased with that. All of those things will be a "so what?" for someone reading this, but for me, they're all a reason to be a little bit pleased with myself.

Optimistic October: Day 17 - Share Your Most Important Goals

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 20:45:00 +0000

Welll...

I've been sharing goals with you all month, haven't I?

Optimistic October: Day 16 - Change for the Better

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 18:38:00 +0000

Things change. We know that, but it can often be much easier* to worry about things changing for the worse rather than looking forward to things changing for the better.

Having said that, in my darker periods over the last decade-and-a-half or so, it's been hard to shake the idea that existence is an unbreakable monotony. Funnily enough I listened to a fascinating TED talk on this (sort of) theme the other day, which I'll embed at the end of this post.

Before that, though I think it's worth saying that I think that today's challenge is a little asinine, or at the very least unhelpful. Yes, things can change for the better (I've got a new bike, woohoo!) but they can also change for the worse (my Granddad was recently diagnosed with lung cancer). Without any further advice the challenge seems a little flat.

I guess what they're trying to say is that it's easy to latch onto and expect the changes for the worse whilst ignoring the changes for the better. Following this change represents a mindset adjustment, and looking back over the last 15 years or so I think I've managed to achieve that, little by little. It takes time, though, and more than a little effort. Simply remembering that it can happen doesn't really help anything at all.

The TED talk I mentioned earlier might be good for viewing change from a different perspective. Here it is:

* At least, if you're me it is.

Optimistic October: Day 15 - Overcoming Obstacles

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 21:32:00 +0000

As mentioned in some of my responses to previous challenges this month something I really need to do is to become fitter and less, well, just generally less. Another obstacle is professional: I've been doing what I'm doing for ages now and whilst I enjoy it (largely...) there's no opportunity for career progression.

Regarding the first obstacle, I tested that new bike out today. I didn't cycle all the way to work as I didn't think it'd be sensible given that I haven't sat atop a bicycle for any distance for a decade or more. Instead, I cycled to the station (and from it again at the other end).

On the professional front, the steps to take are less obvious but I'm working towards broadening my mathematical horizons: when everything is related to cryptography this pony's tricks are rapidly dwindling in number. With this in mind I've been thinking about the MathsJam talk I offered as part of Day 13's challenge: It's definitely not going to be about anything to do with cryptography. I don't know what it is going to be about, but I've got some ideas and I'll collapse that probability function when (if) my submission for a talk is accepted.

What are your obstacles? If you can't think of a first step towards overcoming them talk to someone about them (me, if you like). Maybe you (we) can help each other along a bit.

Optimistic October: Day 14 - Goal Setting for the Week (and a quick review)

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 21:32:00 +0000

Today's challenge, to set hopeful but realistic goals for the week ahead, is generally a pretty good idea to be taking forwards. But then...

... the whole point of taking part in the Optimistic October challenge is lost if I don't make sure that I take something away from it all to keep for the future. So a recap (of sorts) is in order, with a few loose goals attached based on each day's challenge so far.

I will...

As per the goals set on Day 1:

Do some work towards my assignment.
Leave work on time at least once this week.
Go to the gym at least once this week.
Not exceed my self-imposed budget for the month.

Look out for positive news and reasons to be cheerful, as agreed to on Day 2.

If you'd like to help me with this, mention me in some happy, funny, cheerful and generally lovely news posted on twitter.
If you'd like help with this, I've added some links to positive news sources on the "More?" page of this site. If you know of any others, please let me know!

Work on prioritising my daily work, as was the theme of Day 3.
Keep up with my efforts to be the positive changes that I want to see in society. On Day 4, I promised to be more conscious of my effect on the environment; call out antisocial behaviour when I see it; be an ally to decent people everywhere; seek out sources of positive news (see #2!); and to challenge negative nonsense whilst championing the harmless stuff.
Keep up with Day 5's pledge to read a few pages every night before bed. I haven't been perfect between then and now, but I've managed it most days.
Look the bad, annoying or upsetting stuff in the face and extract something optimistic from it. Day 6 told me to, so it's happening.
Get on it. Procrastination would be my middle name if it wasn't already Kenneth, so Day 7 has, is and always will be a challenge, but I'm going to get. On. It*.
Respond to difficult situations constructively. Also, as I challenged myself on Day 8, I'll sandwich bad news between bits of good news. Feel free to give me a nudge if I slip on this one.
Not join in with that blaming lark. Day 9 has a point. I will, instead, [see #7].
Look for the good in people around me, as challenged on Day 10. Nobody's all good, but nobody's all bad either.
Re-frame those problems. I guess Day 11 is just Day 10 in a different... frame. Also the chubster thing. I got that bike, by the way.
Do some reflecting on what I achieve, as Day 12 dictated. I can use this post to do that. See you on Day 20?**
Live a little. Be spontaneous. Day 13 reminds me to not let #3 on this list take over.

How are things going with your challenges so far, and what are your main goals for the week ahead? Good luck with them, and let me know if I can help out!

* First thing in the morning.

** Hopefully before then, too, though.

Optimistic October: Day 13 - A Spontaneous Thing

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 20:56:00 +0000

Today's challenge is a bit of an odd one for me, because to-do lists are very much not my forte, so I thought I'd flip this one on my head.

I use todoist to keep track of my to-dos at home. I say "use," but really that means I use todoist to record a whole heap of things that I'm probably not going to get around to.

So, today I spontaneously did some things on my to-do list:

One was called "Q&A entry," which refers to a diary of sorts in which I am supposed to answer a daily question for five years. The entry was 211 days overdue. I caught up a bit (but not completely).
I'm going to America soon, and it occurred to me the other day that I'd need money while I'm there, so I put it on my to-do list (which is a surefire way to make sure it gets forgotten). I got that process in motion.
I put my name down to do a talk for Big MathsJam in November. This'll be my fourth (I think) Big MathsJam and I've promised myself I'll offer a talk each time. Now I've done it, if it's accepted I'll have no choice but to actually write it.

I can say with complete honesty that without any prior planning I decided on a complete whim to be not spontaneous today: what did you do?

Optimistic October: Day 12 - A Reflection on This Week's Achievments

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 10:59:00 +0000

Day 12, and I'm still going! Today's challenge is to take time to reflect on what you have achieved this week. I want to hear what you've done, either in the comments or over on Twitter!

My own achievements can be summed up as follows:

I took three days off work*! I almost managed not to spend any time answering work emails, too, but I can't really notch that up as an achievement. Still needs work.
It was my birthday week, and for the first time in as long as I can remember I didn't dread it. I could hear the Black Dog howling in the distance on Saturday, but managed to keep it at arm's length.
I socialised on Friday night. It's been a while since that happened.
I got the resource I've been developing for teachers (and their students) to test as part of my PGCert in Digital Leadership finished and sent out on time!

Magic. What did you get up to?

* I won't mention the fact that I worked on Saturday...

Optimistic October: Day 11 - Reframing Problems

noreply@blogger.com (TeaKayB) — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:06:00 +0000

This is a great idea...

Problem: Stop being such a chubster.

The solution: I need to eat less and move more. Gah.
A reframing of that problem: If I eat less bad stuff and more of the decent stuff I can save a bit of cash. If I walk when I can (and make use of that bike I've got on order that I bought with birthday money so it didn't even cost me anything) I can spend less on petrol and rail fares.

What's your problem, and how could you frame it? Answers on a postcard (or in the comments)!