by Mario Merz Martha Graham on her career as a dancer: “It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.” I’ve never heard that ethos articulated so clearly:
The week was a blur. I honestly can't remember why I didn't go the third and final time. Same goal this week, except also going to try and do a better job reflecting and remembering.
2. Complete an outline for a design article
0/5 - Didn't make time to hit this goal.
I'm going to deprioritize this goal for a little while (a month). Ideas for this certainly creep into my mind when I'm taking showers but there are other things I want to focus on right now.
Goals this week:
1. Bouldering 3x
2. Write an extensive pros/cons list for a big career decision. Deliberating this has taken the majority of time and energy outside of work. Looking to make a confident call 2-3 weeks from now.
(3/3) I was in Hawaii last week on vacation with my now-ex but I managed to get 3 training sessions in at Mango Tree Fitness & Muay Thai. Now I'm back in St. Louis and started classes at Watson Martial Arts. My legs are tender but I'm enjoying the 2 hours of focusing on drills and techniques each day.
2. Read a book for 1 hour a day.
(2/7) I started Cruel Optimism on my plane ride back to St. Louis. It's been full of beautiful prose so far.
3. Cook or bake something new every week.
(0/1) I didn't get a chance to cook a meal while on vacation last week, but I picked up a book on Persian cuisine. Let's see how that goes this week.
1. Write 250 words per day - 4/7 Not bad but not every day, and sometimes I wrote 500 words and skipped a day…I think I can manage it this week, so I'm going to keep it at 250 words per day and try again. But part of this goal was to try and figure out a writing schedule that worked, so I might condense it to longer word count goals fewer times per week.
2. Journal every day - 3/7 - not great but the three times I did it was really helpful! And specifying that it had to be short was helpful too. Just getting something down rather than worrying about teasing out every little thing.
1. Keep the 3x weekly writing 'appointments' I put in my GCal
4/5 - 2 down, 1 to go. Felt like I made huge headway this week just by showing up to write when I didn’t feel like it. Listened to a pod by Nir Eyal that said to do lists are terrible for productivity, to schedule an ‘implementation intention’ instead. So far, so good.
2. 5 x daily logging in my journal
2/5 - feel like I haven’t nailed the right time or positive reinforcement to do this. Does anyone else keep a journal?
3. Swap my terrible nightly TikTok habit for reading
4/5 - Been blitzing books. I’m reading Uncanny Valley by Anna Weiner and it is un-put-downable. Just deleted TikTok, too, it’s a time suck. Apparently the average usage of the app is 90 minutes PER DAY 😳
2/5 I missed 3 days, and the writing wasn’t connecting so I need to keep pushing this week.
2. Work out 4x a week
3/5 Got 2 good workouts in this week (cardio heavy). Aiming to step it up a little more this week.
3. Thread post on Twitter 2x a week
4/5 Completed a thread about Avatar 2 (yeah, the sequel to the 2009 movie lol) and the power couple that scheduled ALL of the MLB’s games by hand and paper and computer for 25 years straight.
4. Volunteer 1.5 hours/day
2/5 Hit this goal only two times this past week. Could’ve done more but I just felt mentally tired.
First week was rough. Feels like my brain was waking up from a long nap, taking its time to stretch. Let’s just see how this next week goes.
1. Workout 6 days per week: split days between lifting weights and HIIT workouts on elliptical.
I ended up working out all 7 days. It takes a certain amount of discipline and physical effort to work out daily but because I love doing it, and it both relaxes and energizes me, it is not that difficult to complete my workouts.
2. Meditate 30-60 minutes every day.
I mediated only 3 out of the 7 days. I felt distracted and rushed during the week and I typically struggle to meditate when I feel like this. I substituted 10 minutes of breath work on the days I did not meditate, however ideally this would be in addition to, and not a replacement for meditation.
3. Journal every day. Current writing focus: on what I want to do next career wise and what steps I can take to explore my options.
I wrote in my journal for 5 out of the 7 days focusing on my career and came up with some specific steps I can take that will hopefully lead to some new opportunities.
4/5: Didn't exactly manage to get 15 miles in, but kept my running schedule and could ran faster and longer. So definitively a success I would say!
2. Working on my side project:
5/5: Spent most of the weekend working on it. All the time when I think I just got a problem out of the way a new one appears that needs to get solved. While trying to make my way through I realize that there is still so much that I don't understand or just don't know. But instead of beating my self up about it as I often do, I just went with it. I guess I get older.
In terms of this post: Learning to program is the one kinda work related or creative thing since quite a long time where I get really intense about. If I do not manage to solve a problem I am working on I just can't stop thinking about it. I even found myself open my laptop last week while working from home and stealing an hour to work on it again because it just didn't stop bothering me. Sometimes I find myself researching about some topic for hours and suddenly it's already midnight.
3. Learn 10 new Korean words every day:
4/5: The most time consuming part here is not the studying itself, it's the process of looking up a word and adding it to Anki manually. It's really tiresome and the main reason while I slacked from time to time before. But until I'm doing good. Just let one or two days slip so I think it's ok.
I rode 3x! Once with D, once in Oakland, then once on an inside trainer I bought months ago but finally I set up Friday. Feeling really good physically from all the biking and proud. What's helped has been setting myself up for success (got the trainer so I'm not blocked by time of day or weather), having a longterm goal tied to it (bike tour in July) and having a friend to do it with (D) which makes it that much more enjoyable.
3. Read 30 min every day
Technically yes, but should have clarified "read books". 3/7 for this.
- Spend 4 hours per day learning and practicing data science.
1/5: I started doing it the first two days and then stopped. I think it is hard because the first parts of learning are usually boring, since you are learning the fundamentals of the language, and not problem solving. I think 4 hours per day is extreme for me, I will target 2 hours per day for this week.
- Pray 5 times per day while being present.
3/5: Huge improvement in this part. Know praying feels more relaxing and I feel closer to god. This had good effect on my mentality during the day.
- Exercise 4 times per week.
3/5: Improved, especially that I have not been exercising for a while now. It feels good and rewarding.
this is good! finished three books (two immensely shitty ones for a review, and Severance by ling ma which was just. incredible)
2. write for at least two hours a day
lol, i held steady until Friday and then fell apart. i did manage to get an outline done so hopefully this week will be better (i have a deadline on Monday so, like, it /has/ to be, lmao).
3. sleep for eight hours a night
held steady until Friday, when I spent most of the night reading Severance. i might make an exception for nights when I'm up reading a really good book?
2/5 - Doing pretty bad here, but on the flipside i have nuggets of something interesting. Been traveling (w/ recording equipment...) but haven't had the energy to get around to unpacking and setting it up before i get back home anyways
Running 4 times per week
3/5 I only ran twice but I had two job interviews that consumed my evenings. I went for a long run on Sunday to make up the miles somewhat.
Meditate every day
2/5 Only 3 days. This is one that probably saves time in the long run so I'd like to build the habit even while busy.
Last week's goals:
1. Finish editing a podcast
done! podcast is published!
2. Work on a plot outline for 7 hours
only got one hour in, but it's one hour more than i would've done without the group
I've found a plotting method that seems to work better for me so I'll roll with that.
This week's goals:
1. Work on a plot outline for 3.5 hours
2. Work on a coding project for 7 hours
1. Go bouldering 3x
4/5 - Went twice, climbed hard.
The week was a blur. I honestly can't remember why I didn't go the third and final time. Same goal this week, except also going to try and do a better job reflecting and remembering.
2. Complete an outline for a design article
0/5 - Didn't make time to hit this goal.
I'm going to deprioritize this goal for a little while (a month). Ideas for this certainly creep into my mind when I'm taking showers but there are other things I want to focus on right now.
Goals this week:
1. Bouldering 3x
2. Write an extensive pros/cons list for a big career decision. Deliberating this has taken the majority of time and energy outside of work. Looking to make a confident call 2-3 weeks from now.
The Anais Nin quote reminded me of this one from Ilya Kamisnky; “I must walk on the edge of myself.”
Here's how it's going for me:
1. Go to Muay Thai practice 3x a week.
(3/3) I was in Hawaii last week on vacation with my now-ex but I managed to get 3 training sessions in at Mango Tree Fitness & Muay Thai. Now I'm back in St. Louis and started classes at Watson Martial Arts. My legs are tender but I'm enjoying the 2 hours of focusing on drills and techniques each day.
2. Read a book for 1 hour a day.
(2/7) I started Cruel Optimism on my plane ride back to St. Louis. It's been full of beautiful prose so far.
3. Cook or bake something new every week.
(0/1) I didn't get a chance to cook a meal while on vacation last week, but I picked up a book on Persian cuisine. Let's see how that goes this week.
Mixed for me too!
1. Write 250 words per day - 4/7 Not bad but not every day, and sometimes I wrote 500 words and skipped a day…I think I can manage it this week, so I'm going to keep it at 250 words per day and try again. But part of this goal was to try and figure out a writing schedule that worked, so I might condense it to longer word count goals fewer times per week.
2. Journal every day - 3/7 - not great but the three times I did it was really helpful! And specifying that it had to be short was helpful too. Just getting something down rather than worrying about teasing out every little thing.
3. Pilates/exercise 3x per week - managed this :)
1. Keep the 3x weekly writing 'appointments' I put in my GCal
4/5 - 2 down, 1 to go. Felt like I made huge headway this week just by showing up to write when I didn’t feel like it. Listened to a pod by Nir Eyal that said to do lists are terrible for productivity, to schedule an ‘implementation intention’ instead. So far, so good.
2. 5 x daily logging in my journal
2/5 - feel like I haven’t nailed the right time or positive reinforcement to do this. Does anyone else keep a journal?
3. Swap my terrible nightly TikTok habit for reading
4/5 - Been blitzing books. I’m reading Uncanny Valley by Anna Weiner and it is un-put-downable. Just deleted TikTok, too, it’s a time suck. Apparently the average usage of the app is 90 minutes PER DAY 😳
Pretty rough start.
1. Write 500 words/day or 2 hours a day at least
2/5 I missed 3 days, and the writing wasn’t connecting so I need to keep pushing this week.
2. Work out 4x a week
3/5 Got 2 good workouts in this week (cardio heavy). Aiming to step it up a little more this week.
3. Thread post on Twitter 2x a week
4/5 Completed a thread about Avatar 2 (yeah, the sequel to the 2009 movie lol) and the power couple that scheduled ALL of the MLB’s games by hand and paper and computer for 25 years straight.
4. Volunteer 1.5 hours/day
2/5 Hit this goal only two times this past week. Could’ve done more but I just felt mentally tired.
First week was rough. Feels like my brain was waking up from a long nap, taking its time to stretch. Let’s just see how this next week goes.
So far, my progress on my weekly goals is mixed.
1. Workout 6 days per week: split days between lifting weights and HIIT workouts on elliptical.
I ended up working out all 7 days. It takes a certain amount of discipline and physical effort to work out daily but because I love doing it, and it both relaxes and energizes me, it is not that difficult to complete my workouts.
2. Meditate 30-60 minutes every day.
I mediated only 3 out of the 7 days. I felt distracted and rushed during the week and I typically struggle to meditate when I feel like this. I substituted 10 minutes of breath work on the days I did not meditate, however ideally this would be in addition to, and not a replacement for meditation.
3. Journal every day. Current writing focus: on what I want to do next career wise and what steps I can take to explore my options.
I wrote in my journal for 5 out of the 7 days focusing on my career and came up with some specific steps I can take that will hopefully lead to some new opportunities.
Week 2 Check-In:
1. Run every week for 15 miles:
4/5: Didn't exactly manage to get 15 miles in, but kept my running schedule and could ran faster and longer. So definitively a success I would say!
2. Working on my side project:
5/5: Spent most of the weekend working on it. All the time when I think I just got a problem out of the way a new one appears that needs to get solved. While trying to make my way through I realize that there is still so much that I don't understand or just don't know. But instead of beating my self up about it as I often do, I just went with it. I guess I get older.
In terms of this post: Learning to program is the one kinda work related or creative thing since quite a long time where I get really intense about. If I do not manage to solve a problem I am working on I just can't stop thinking about it. I even found myself open my laptop last week while working from home and stealing an hour to work on it again because it just didn't stop bothering me. Sometimes I find myself researching about some topic for hours and suddenly it's already midnight.
3. Learn 10 new Korean words every day:
4/5: The most time consuming part here is not the studying itself, it's the process of looking up a word and adding it to Anki manually. It's really tiresome and the main reason while I slacked from time to time before. But until I'm doing good. Just let one or two days slip so I think it's ok.
1. Yoga video everyday (it's 20min)
No, but I finally did it today :)
2. 2x/week bike with D
I rode 3x! Once with D, once in Oakland, then once on an inside trainer I bought months ago but finally I set up Friday. Feeling really good physically from all the biking and proud. What's helped has been setting myself up for success (got the trainer so I'm not blocked by time of day or weather), having a longterm goal tied to it (bike tour in July) and having a friend to do it with (D) which makes it that much more enjoyable.
3. Read 30 min every day
Technically yes, but should have clarified "read books". 3/7 for this.
- Spend 4 hours per day learning and practicing data science.
1/5: I started doing it the first two days and then stopped. I think it is hard because the first parts of learning are usually boring, since you are learning the fundamentals of the language, and not problem solving. I think 4 hours per day is extreme for me, I will target 2 hours per day for this week.
- Pray 5 times per day while being present.
3/5: Huge improvement in this part. Know praying feels more relaxing and I feel closer to god. This had good effect on my mentality during the day.
- Exercise 4 times per week.
3/5: Improved, especially that I have not been exercising for a while now. It feels good and rewarding.
- Have a fixed sleeping schedule.
5/5: By far the biggest improvement.
All the best everyone!
check-in:
1. finish two books per week
this is good! finished three books (two immensely shitty ones for a review, and Severance by ling ma which was just. incredible)
2. write for at least two hours a day
lol, i held steady until Friday and then fell apart. i did manage to get an outline done so hopefully this week will be better (i have a deadline on Monday so, like, it /has/ to be, lmao).
3. sleep for eight hours a night
held steady until Friday, when I spent most of the night reading Severance. i might make an exception for nights when I'm up reading a really good book?
Check-in:
Write one demo quality song a week
2/5 - Doing pretty bad here, but on the flipside i have nuggets of something interesting. Been traveling (w/ recording equipment...) but haven't had the energy to get around to unpacking and setting it up before i get back home anyways
iPhone recorded scratch intro and melody
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ucylh1s2952snr/Intro%20%2B%20scratch%20Melody.m4a?dl=0
Hoping to flesh out the structure and lyrics this week and perhaps come up w/ a new concept for the next one
✏️ Write every day (5/7)
🤲 Volunteer every week (0/1)
🛋 Get therapy (not yet)
🔮 Learn to read tarot cards (not only did I do this but I read for 6 people in one weekend so I kind of crushed it?)