My very first post on this blog was about swimming. Welcome, 2019, it couldn’t be different – let’s make a summary of my swimming habit!

2018 review

Again, in my previous post I explained 8 personal reasons to love swimming. Let’s talk them in short:

  1. Going out – Yup, I still need that.
  2. Making habits – Yup, swimming as a habit is gold.
  3. Listening to podcasts – Yes and no. I stopped listening to podcasts, but will probably get back to it one day. Nowadays I prefer silence (Deep Work changed me) or listening to Queen. The latter definitely falls into “listening what I like” category.
  4. Time to think – Yes!
  5. Better sleep – Hell no. See the next paragraphs why.
  6. Feeling progress – Not really now.
  7. Part of something bigger – Yes and no. The fact remains but nowadays doesn’t seem so appealing.
  8. Useful skill – Yes!

Biggest shift

I used to go swimming in the evenings, right before sleep. Now I do it in the mornings, before work, 7 AM. Well, except for weekends, but even then it’s early afternoon (1-2 PM), not evening.

There were a few reasons why I changed the time for swimming:

  • I read that physical activity on the evening will most likely make your sleep worse (I always had problems with sleep)
  • I was looking for a way to be more awake (“less-zombie”) at work
  • Evenings are for having fun, am I right? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
  • My pool kept getting more and more crowded in evenings

All in all, that worked pretty well for me. Indeed, I do sleep better, and I feel fresher at work after swimming. In fact, I think my most productive days at work are when I:

  • slept well a few days before
  • went swimming

So that was really a gamechanger to me.

One can think: OK, but how to motivate yourself to go to the pool this early? I agree it’s much harder than in the evenings. But here’s the trick…

Best trick

I started a life hack: reward myself with a cup of coffee after every swimming. It helped me make a habit and overcome laziness. (Swimming? At 7 AM? How about I go back to sleep? …oh, but a coffee afterward. Yeah, let’s go. I’m gonna love this coffee.). And I would buy that coffee the other day anyway.

Primitive but working. If you had asked me a year ago what I think about such tricks, I would have only made fun of you. And yet today I’m strongly advocating this idea and sincerely recommend it to everybody. The power of experiments, huh?

Stats

Last thing – I started recording simple notes (when and how much) about my swimming in 2018. Now I share the stats, for the record.

Pool attendance by quarter

Q1: 29
Q2: 21
Q3: 16
Q4: 12

Decreasing tendency, but I consider it OK, given harsh circumstances:

  • Difficulty of going swimming in mornings
  • Injuries (I’ve got some problems recently)
  • Illness (Q4 is hard, polish autumn, dude)

Total distance swum – 51,450 km

This excludes first quarter. That makes 5,71 km per month. Hell yeah. Will improve.