Sunday Summary #21

Officially Isolated for 8 Weeks

Namaste ,

Welcome to An Urban Journey’s 21st Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written in our (same) hotel in the Blue City of India, Jodhpur. When you read this email, we will officially have been isolated for 8 weeks!

This may sound like an extremely long time to be holed up in a hotel, but time is moving by very quickly. This also isn’t the first time we stayed in one location for an extended period of time this year. It reminds us of when we hunkered down in Melbourne from mid-January to mid-February. At the time, we decided to plan a month "catch-up", after we had spent the New Years with our family traveling all around New Zealand and Australia. 

During that in Melbourne, we had high hopes for releasing many vlogs and creating new software, because of well...simple math. Since it only takes about 6-12 hours to release a video, and we have 30 videos to produce, then we can catch up in a month! Yes, we released tons of content but we didn't achieve all what we wanted to, only a fraction of it. 

Having quarantine here in India, felt like a second chance. We made some changes.

We realized 2 major things we were missing by just grinding "work" every day. The first is dedicated rest days. By intentionally setting some days as non-work it gives ourselves time to breathe. The important part is realizing our productivity is slowing down and, as a result, scheduling the days to chill. Sometimes we decided to take a break by taking a full day to binge watch Netflix, read an entire book, or draw and paint.

The second big thing we changed, is simply adding diversity into our work. By choosing new creative outlets, related to our main work, we are able to have fun in a productive way for the business which then breathes new life into our more important commitments. We started a TikTok channel (link here) where we can have fun with shorter form videos that last about 15 seconds. We renewed our passion of reading and now, most days, we spend around a couple hours reading. Jenn has been meditating and following a yoga plan and Elliot has been teaching programming to his brother.

Who knows how much longer quarantine will last, it seems like some places of the world are experimenting with relaxing restrictions. If you find yourself in a similar boat, and not getting everything you want done, try to relax. The secret to discipline comes from your environment and having it reinforce good decisions. Unfortunately being stuck in a hotel room with wifi and AC is not conducive to weeks of working non-stop. It's conducive to sleeping late and watching Netflix and YouTube :)

We hope everyone continues staying safe during these trying times. We hope you have been enjoying our latest Vlogs where we said bye to our wonderful guests and are now exploring Melbourne, Australia. On Instagram we just celebrated the anniversary of Jodhpur India where we had some traditional Dosa and they lit up the fort for the first time in a month. On TikTok you can see our hotel staff and how we are becoming friends.

Here are our latest vlogs, thanks for watching and subscribing!

Australia

• Driving up to Brissy and riding the FREE Ferry | Brisbane, Australia

• Great Inexpensive Ways We Explored Brisbane, Australia

• Time to Say Goodbye | Lone Pine Sanctuary and Brisbane River Walk

• How to Spend a FREE Day in Brisbane and almost $300 in Luggage Fees

Thank you to everyone reaching out with concerns,we hope everyone stays safe!

Namaste,Jenn + Elliot