Lessons from exercise helping me with my thesis
Exercise in later Life
I really only took up any kind of exercise in my late 40s. When I was younger, we all ran about and played outside all day if we could but there was little sports provision for girls.
Running on a Treadmill
The first exercise I took specifically AS exercise was walking. And I had to get used to walking in flat shoes. I had been working in an office for 20 years, wearing low heels and when I wore trainers for walking on rough or muddy ground, I was in agony after only about a quarter mile because my Achilles tendons had shortened. Then I went to aerobics class but in my 50s, I moved office into the city centre and the building had a small gym for use by members of the club. I joined and found they had a treadmill. At the age of 58, I decided I was going to run my first ever mile. There were times when the gym was empty, so I practised then. It was hard work keeping running, even for "just" a mile and I had to work up to it. I found that my best encouragement was to use the counter on the treadmill dashboard to count down 10, 9, 8 .... seconds etc and keep myself going "just" for another 10 seconds. Then I increased it to 15 and 20 seconds. I ran my first mile using this technique to keep me going and improved my time to my personal best of 9 minutes 58 seconds - I was determined to beat the 10 minute barrier. 
Help For My Thesis
I have been using that technique to help me get through formatting my thesis. I posted yesterday that Microsoft WORD(r) was a PITB I had over 200 figures plus 6 photos and 10 tables to caption so I could create a table of these and it wasn't playing ball. Captioning doesn't require a lot of thought but it does require steady careful work, so I am doing 10 at a time then a break. I managed to get up to 20 at a time once I got going. At that rate it goes a bit faster. Exercise can improve your study skills too!
FOPP exercise studyskills thesis
Image Credit » https://pixabay.com/en/fitness-treadmill-running-957115/ by profivideos
Comments
MegL wrote on October 8, 2015, 9:17 AM
Unfortunately I can't actually run at the minute, I have a touch of sciatica!
It's improving -it had better - and I am beginning to be able to run a few steps at a time. I hope to get back into much more exercise once this thesis is finished. 
wolfgirl569 wrote on October 8, 2015, 9:26 AM
Glad you have found a way to get it done. Hope you are finished soon
markgraham wrote on October 8, 2015, 10:08 AM
Glad you figured out your issues. Professor will so proud. I say this for my future I want to be a professor after completing my doctorate.
CoralLevang wrote on October 8, 2015, 1:12 PM
Running has never been something I have done well. But your methodology is exactly what I do...or try to do. And then some days, I get a bug up my bum, and go all out....just to say I did. LOL
DWDavisRSL wrote on October 8, 2015, 6:04 PM
It's nice that you were able to apply the lesson learned while exercising to such an unrelated activity and it turned out to be so helpful.
jiangliu1949 wrote on October 9, 2015, 7:55 AM
You finally made it .Every thing proceeds in an orderly way and step by step,can't be done at one go .As for exercise ,I take a walk for 30 minutes every day ,I feel comfortable in cloth shoes when I do it .
msiduri wrote on October 10, 2015, 8:17 PM
Back when I was in college, I had a lot of classes on the 5th floor of the humanities building. I got tired of waiting for the elevator so I just took the stairs. I felt it, but it was quicker and more pleasant than the cattle car of the elevator. I think I might die if I tried that today.
paigea wrote on October 11, 2015, 8:32 AM
The effort for most things is similar isn't it. Get started and persist step by step.