> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.noteofdaring.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# How To Be Under-Prepared & Distracted
- URL: https://www.noteofdaring.com/how-to-be-under-prepared-and-distracted/
- Published: 2026-02-06T17:52:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-09T15:41:47.000Z
- Description: As winter is the ideal time for staying inside and not focusing.
- Author: Rachel Thompson
- Tags: Strategy

Are you running a marathon relay race in Greensboro, NC on Sunday with 4 of your dog park friends on what looks to be a cold February day and were planning to train more in the past month?

Did you intend to make substantial progress on your website project this week?

Here are a few helpful ways to be distracted and underprepared for those things right now, so that you most definitely will accomplish those activities on time and under budget with ease.

### Race Under-Preparedness Tips: Blame the Weather

1. Avoid running outside because of two back-to-back winter storms making the roads and sidewalks slick and snowy.
2. Avoid running outside because it’s cold. Bonus tip: Take super short walks with your dog that require 7 layers for warmth and your canine’s strong desire to be inside.
3. Avoid running inside because your code to your apartment complex gym doesn’t work so you can only go during the day but you’re staying at your partner’s house after his shoulder surgery so it’s inconvenient.
4. Split up your running gear between two different abodes, so that when you do go over to said gym you are in running clothes but leave your shoes behind.

### Website Project Distraction Tips: Decide to Move

1. Decide to move in with your partner over the weekend after thinking about it for several months.
2. Spend the week packing and moving things.
3. Also, it’s still snowy, cold, and a dreary February so your energy and focus are absolutely 100% right now.
4. Dedicate time to all the moving admin and phone calls required.
5. Break down your apartment office set-up and don’t set up the new one at the house because you need to move your standing desk in the U-Haul you booked for Saturday.
6. Research buying a new wide-screen monitor after using your partner’s set-up.
7. Stare at the TV you don’t really use and think about if you want to sell it, store it, or donate it.
8. Reconsider all your aspirational gear, supplies, and books and therefore a few of your decisions and potential future plans.

### General Under-Preparedness & Distraction Tips: 🌎

1. Redownload Instagram and Threads on your phone just in time for this week in the world.👎🏻
2. Make sure you pack the things you need in different places and leave them in two different locations.

### And Also, I’m Good.

I knew that my running training for a February race would veer off-plan and so I held it lightly to begin with. I also had a low bar for what enough training might look like for me.

Am I underprepared physically? Likely, yes. And also, this race is about the relay. The group of us trying to do an interesting thing of running ⅕ of a marathon each with a tent and blankets and snacks and community.

That’s awesome!

I hadn’t initially planned to move \*this week\* but when it all came together I wanted to make it happen. When I do decide, I make moves.

I’ve realized that’s how I tend to operate with decisions like this. I will circle around a thought - starting my business in 2016, getting a dog in 2018, moving out of DC in 2021 - for quite a while and then when it coalesces I want to make moves pretty quickly.

I also know that late January and early February are harder months for me energetically and focus-wise. So I do what I can to navigate this season well while letting it be what it will be. This is often the ebb before the flow.

So, I will run the race on Sunday. It will be what it will be.

And I will work on my website next week.

This is what it means to follow my energy.