AlexTheGrape

A quick couple of posts for the past two days: Post-Detox Day 159 Today has been a superb day of study. I went to my school to study despite not being required to (about 99% of students just stay at home and study during this time) as we’re in the midst of doing mock exams; in my year group you’re only required to come to school if you have an exam. I got a total of 6 x 1 hour practice tests done for physics, having completed and marked them all, in addition to some regular studying. It's been the best study day I've had in a long time. I feel I’ve done myself a great service and am the most prepared I can be for my physics test tomorrow. Post-Detox Day 160 Today was time for my physics exams, and I feel I’ve aced it! There was only one question I couldn’t answer, so I think I’ve done really well. I managed to get some study done in the afternoon, albeit quite a small amount; I normally give myself Fridays off. I’ll be back to studying again tomorrow, I’ve got biology up next.

Don't worry it's coming! I am a man of my word. No hurry, I'd understand if you're not keen on taking a photo just yet until your surf injury has healed. You're a busy guy!

Post-Detox Day 160 Just a quick post today. Today I have done reasonably well with my helpful habits; I had a run in the morning and had a short meditation session. The remainder of my free time has been taken up by studying or attempting to study, with a little time for reflection afterwards with my brother. I had fencing this afternoon and made it to the final for my school sabre fencing cup, but lost that bout to come 2nd. Yesterday I had another good day. I had an exercise ‘circuit’ that consisted of a range of exercises, and got a good deal of homework done. Hi Mad Pharmacist! Thanks for checking out my journal. Yeah it's difficult to keep up all these habits with exams so close, but I'm getting done what I can. Yup, I hope to keep up the yups.

Post-Detox Day 158 Today has been valuable as I now feel I’m on track to improving my academic ability further. I spent most of the day studying at the local library, a couple hours of which I spent studying with a friend. Although I didn’t get the goal amount of work I wanted done, I think it was significantly greater than what I would have achieved at home. Towards the end of the day I developed a simple system to keep myself accountable for schoolwork during the day and with homework. I’m excited to get started with this as I know I need more personal accountability for studying; simply putting a percentage up here doesn’t help as much as I’d like. I also had some random cravings for my old favourite video game today. I’d largely put it down to my gamer friends saying I was ‘missing out’ this weekend, but I’m over it now so I’m glad those thoughts have passed relatively quickly. I revisited my relapse posts and I had a think about playing guitar again. I believe I simply stopped because I ran out of content to continue practicing, and I never got round to finding new things move on to. Once my exams are over I think it’d be a good idea to get started with playing guitar again, it was a great source of fun. I’ve done really well with my habits today. Gratitude journal I am grateful for public libraries. I am grateful for stickers. I am grateful for the springy shoes I’m wearing. One amazing thing that happened/I did today I had a think about ways I could reward myself for working, and I came up with one that has worked whilst I was younger. I think this could make a big change, I just need to keep consistent with it. Workout/run Yup. Meditation Yup. Visualisation Yup. Daily affirmations Yup. Reading + taking notes Yup. Getting to bed before 9pm Not last night. 100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination I didn’t do well at this at all. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have meditated again in the day to clear my head, as negative emotions were clouding my judgement. What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to implement my new accountability system to make the most out of my time to study. Photo Stream I took both of these today, the river one from my run this morning. The other it was a great sight for this rainy day.

Post-Detox Day 157 Today hasn’t been great, but you can’t have good days without having bad ones. I went to the NZ national secondary schools fencing competition, but didn’t come out with a result I was happy with. This afternoon I was told that I “looked dead”, and I felt it too. I found it very difficult to get started studying and didn’t get much done. Tomorrow I’ve dedicated to studying and I’ll be going out to the library, so that’ll mean I will likely get loads done. Gratitude journal I am grateful for never having needed an amputation. I am grateful for all my senses being in good condition. I am grateful for having the opportunity to fence at a national competition today. One amazing thing that happened/I did today Despite losing to somebody that I was expected to beat, I made sure to take the time to congratulate him personally afterwards. No point being a sore loser. Workout/run I had exercise at the competition. Meditation Yup. Visualisation Yup. Daily affirmations Nope. Reading + taking notes Nope. Getting to bed before 9pm Not last night. 100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination I didn’t do well at this at all. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have meditated again in the day to clear my head, as negative emotions were clouding my judgement. What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to make sure to utilise all the mental and physical tools I can to put 100% effort into studying. Photo Stream I took this one when out for a run recently.

Thanks Daniel. The structure changed over time to accommodate the daily habits I wanted to do, the best ways I found to reflect, and ways to keep happy (e.g gratitude journal). Feel free to copy the structure if you like

If Alex happened to be in a onesie, I will reply with a photo of me in a onesie. This is my final offer. Well we're both in luck, I was in fact wearing a monkey onesie! Here's my chemistry class. See if you can spot me quickly

Post-Detox Day 154 Today I’ve been pretty tired, (somebody else’s alarm woke me up at 5:30am), but I still could have gotten to bed earlier to prevent fatigue. I’ve been doing a lot of organising for an event, and it’s been quite draining and time consuming. I’ll need to make sure to use social media more effectively for that in future. Otherwise today has been another good one, and mufti day has quickly become just a memory. Luckily you’ll get to see a photo in my next post! :D I didn’t get round to the meditation stuff again today, and I’m feeling the lack of it as I’ve been a little more stressed. Gratitude journal I am grateful for the lamp on my desk. I am grateful for the close friends I have. I am grateful for shoes on my feet. One amazing thing that happened/I did today Luckily the one day this whole school term that I’m given money for lunch, there’s a sausage sizzle at school for charity! Awesome use of money and a mean feed. Workout/run Yup. Meditation Nope. Visualisation Nope. Daily affirmations Nope. Reading + taking notes Yup. Getting to bed before 9pm Nope. 100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination 80% homework effort, largely because so much of it was taken up by organising an event. Time for me to go back to studying

Hi Laney, awesome to hear from you again! It sounds like you're on track to making major progress in those areas you've listed, and making a big difference in the lives of some lucky people I liked that octopus story, it was quite creative.

Post-Detox Day 153 The past few days have whizzed by, being filled with lots of studying, more studying, and more studying. Mock exams are next week, and I am in full swing trying to revise for them. I’ve gotten into ForceFit 2 to continue developing my physical ability, and I’m enjoying a bit of a challenge. Today was ‘mufti day’ at school, which means we get to dress in normal clothes to school. As is an unspoken tradition in our school, the final year students come dressed up. We had everything from construction workers to onesies to hazmat suits. It was a fun day in general. I’ve been starting to substitute time for meditation for simply talking to people or to study. If I don’t get back to previous meditation practices in this time I’ll have to get up earlier in future. Gratitude journal I am grateful for all the amazing costumes today. I am grateful for having writing utensils. I am grateful for having a water bottle. One amazing thing that happened/I did today Having classes with everybody dressed up in all sorts of costumes was a very fun experience, I’m glad I had the opportunity to see some clever ideas. Workout/run Yup. Meditation Nope. Visualisation Nope. Daily affirmations Nope. Reading + taking notes Yup. Getting to bed before 9pm Nope. 100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination 100% Homework effort this afternoon, but with a little procrastination. That’s all for today.

Thanks Cam! I hope you're having a great day as well.

Thanks man! Studying is high priority for me at the moment (exams coming up), so I'm doing what I can.

Post-Detox Day 149 Today has been awesome, I received a ton of birthday wishes, many from people I’d otherwise never have met had I not quit gaming. I spent some quality time with my family and grandparents, and saw a few friends. I had a good run in the morning, but didn’t do any of my other daily habits as I ran out of time (I was at a university open day for a good portion of the day). I’ll be back onto it tomorrow. Gratitude journal I am grateful for the prestigious universities that are in my city. I am grateful for my free birthday burrito. I am grateful for the many birthday wishes I’ve received today. One amazing thing that happened/I did today Receiving heart-warming birthday wishes from my close friends was the highlight of today, I’m happy to have such great friends. Workout/run Yup. Meditation Nope. Visualisation Nope. Daily affirmations Nope. Reading + taking notes Nope. Getting to bed before 9pm Almost! I’m on track to do that today though. 100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination - - What I could have done to make my day better: I think I’ve had a great day today, I made sure to not bog myself down with any work so I can’t improve in that area today. What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to get up a little earlier to get studying on time. Photo Stream A few days I took this one whilst a passenger in a car, but it was a great view!

Post-Detox Day 148 Today has been a very busy day at school, I’ve been making the most of my time though by chasing teachers to help me in my subjects where needed. I’ve been a little slacking this week in terms of exercise, I’ve been up late studying and haven’t brought myself to doing many workouts or morning runs. Leading on from that, today I’ve been a little out of touch with my morning habits as I’ve skipped them for more homework time. That’ll change for my next week though. My past few days have been more of the same: Get up and study hard till the end of the day, rinse and repeat. This won’t continue for too long though, I’ve only got a week till mock exams. Luckily it’s my Birthday tomorrow so I’ll get some nice respite from this cycle! Gratitude journal I am grateful for the gift of life. I am grateful for the thousands of breaths I can take each day. I am grateful for electricity. One amazing thing that happened/I did today I had a fun call with a close friend this afternoon, it was a great way to wrap up my day. Workout/run Nope. Meditation Nope. Visualisation Yup. Daily affirmations Nope. Reading + taking notes Nope. Getting to bed before 9pm I did pretty well with 100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination 95%! I’ve done well during the day to do the most I could with school time, with the exception of my last class. Less than 15 minutes of Youtube Yup. I’m going to phase this one out as I’ve now been consistently keeping my watching time down. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have gone to bed earlier, I’ve been up too late studying. What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to try to get to bed on time, but it’s my birthday so I probably won’t. :P Photo Stream I took this one not too long ago when I went on a night run.

I'm glad you like them! I'm not one to upload lots of pictures of myself, but I might upload one later if I get a good photo.

Post-Detox Day 145 The past few days have whizzed by, I’ve been keeping myself busy with studying for upcoming mock exams and just haven’t made the time to post. I think I’ll try and keep them as short and simple as possible if my time needs to be invested elsewhere so that I don’t put off posting entirely. Yesterday I had a two interview with the Air Force, which has progressed my application further. If all goes well I’ll potentially have a life-long career. Today has been another good day at school. Most classes have been rather productive, but I need to work on ignoring my surroundings and distracting people if I’m to work in a noisy environment. Gratitude journal I am grateful for the two course dinner I had tonight. I am grateful for having a room to myself. I am grateful for my new sharp haircut. One amazing thing that happened/I did today I got plenty of positive comments about my new haircut, it was certainly something that made my day more enjoyable. Workout/run Day off, I injured myself running yesterday. Meditation Done x2 Visualisation Done. Daily affirmations Yup. Reading + taking notes Yup, didn’t take notes though. Getting to bed before 9pm I did pretty well with that yesterday. 100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination I’d say I gave it 90%. I didn’t put in the maximum effort because I procrastinated a little in the afternoon. Daily social goal I’m not going to worry about these for now; I am spending most of my lunch times studying. Less than 15 minutes of Youtube Yup. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have made sure to separate my free time and work time as it would have made studying more efficient. I could have removed myself from noisy places to do studying What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to make sure I sit in a quiet space for studying, and put in 100% homework/studying effort. Photo Stream Here's a couple from the last two days. As a bonus you can get to see some of my hair hanging in view (before I got my haircut). Photography Lineup I'm going to stop posting my more scenic ones; I'll just post any good photos I've taken recently. I keep consistently posting old ones and so it doesn't push me to exercise my photography skills. I'll post these on my work out days instead of a stream.

Luckily you don't need to do that sort of thing if you get to choose when and how you work! Surely you're fitter for them now though.

Post-Detox Day 140 Today has been a superb day at school; I asked lots of questions and it felt I was making major progress in class. Gratitude journal I am grateful for being a Homo Sapien. I am grateful for facial tissues. I am grateful for having wonderful grandparents. One amazing thing that happened/I did today: There was a great seminar at my school today by a special guest about what society perceives as being a ‘real man’ and masculinity. I already knew a lot of the concepts, but having them laid out in a clear way was a very beneficial experience. Workout/run Done, albeit short today. Meditation Done. Visualisation Done, but a bit short today. Daily affirmations Nope. Reading + taking notes I went to sleep too late for that. Getting to bed before 9pm I certainly did! It may have contributed to my activity in class today. 100% Homework effort I’d say I gave it 80%, the reason I wasn’t getting the most out of my time has been too much planning. I think I’ll just have to grudgingly accept that getting the work done quickly is a priority if I only get a few hours in the afternoon for it, so I need to minimise planning time. Daily social goal Didn't set one yesterday. Social goal for tomorrow: I’m going to make sure to greet everyone with a smile, even if I don’t know them. It’ll be difficult to keep up a smile for most of the day, but I can bet good things will come of it. Less than 15 minutes of Youtube Yup. No procrastination before studying A little. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have had a decent run in the morning; that’d have boosted my alertness levels in the morning. What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to have a longer run in the morning.

Posts for the past few days: Post-Detox Day 137 Today was mostly dedicated to studying. I tried studying from home, although this turned out to be less effective than my newer method of going to the library and simulating a school day. I did both a work out and run, and I’m confident that I’ll do well in my assessment day for the Defence Force on Tuesday (consists of physical, maths, and pattern recognition tests). Post-Detox Day 138 Today I’ve been back to school for the week, and the day went relatively smoothly. The homework has stacked up a little, but I’ve been able to handle it well today. It’s been very busy, and it seems like it’ll be a busy week for me. Post-Detox Day 139 Today has been a great success! I had my assessment day with the Defence Force (with about 11 other people) and I think I’ve aced the tests. I beat everybody in all the physical tests, even those who were years older than me; I did 41 push ups in a row and scored something like 12.6 in the beep test (probably a little more, I can’t remember), just to name a couple. I think I did fairly well in the other [paper] tests, but I’ll just need to wait for the results to come back. My post for today: Post-Detox Day 140 Today has been another good day at school. Although I’ve got a little bit of work to catch up on, I’ve done pretty well to get most of it done today. The day has otherwise been pretty uneventful. Gratitude journal I am grateful for being literate. I am grateful for the wonderful dinner I had tonight. I am grateful for websites in general. One amazing thing that happened/I did today: I had fencing practice this afternoon, and it has by far been the most fun I’ve had in a long time! I put 110% effort in and my opponents did too; it made for very interesting and fun bouts. That’s it for today, I am trying to get to bed before 9pm.

My post for yesterday: Post-Detox Day 135 Today was another good day at school; it was a mix of relaxed classes and ones more engaging. I didn’t get up early enough to get the exercise I was going to in, and I regret not doing that. I didn’t minimise phone usage like I wanted to, but on the other hand it wasn’t out of control either. I made dinner with my father, and was good to get some more cooking experience under my belt. Post-Detox Day 136 Today I fenced Sabre with my team from my school against other high school teams… We came 1st place! It was wonderful to come first for a change. In the afternoon I didn’t get up to much and I haven’t done well with my daily habits today, but as long as I punch up my effort tomorrow I’ll be happy with my effort this weekend. Gratitude journal I am grateful for having pizza tonight. I am grateful for finally winning a fencing competition. I am grateful for having support around when I need it. One amazing thing that happened/I did today: When I was feeling lethargic and just couldn’t get started with my studying, I decided to go for a run. I had much resistance against going out for a run when it was so dark (it was about 7pm) and the nipping cold, but I did it anyway. I enjoyed the run although I pushed myself somewhat. Workout/run Done. Meditation Skipped. Visualisation Skipped. Daily affirmations Nope. Reading + taking notes I went to sleep too late for that. Getting to bed before 9pm Yesterday I didn’t get to sleep at 9pm. I’m consistently not doing this on time, I’ll need to change my alarm times. 100% Homework effort 30% effort today (poor!), I need to do better tomorrow. Daily social goal Didn't set one yesterday. Social goal for tomorrow: Strike up conversations with three strangers. Less than 15 minutes of Youtube Yup. No procrastination before studying Heaps of procrastination. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have made sure to not play music whilst trying to get tasks done, as I know I find it more distracting than helpful. What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to have a full on studying day to get done as much as I can. Photo stream Unfortunately my phone decided to run out of power just when I was opening my camera app! Photography lineup You can probably have a guess where I took this one, it's where I took a ton of photos.

Hi Rusaw, I'm glad you've taken an interest in fencing! I'd obviously biased towards it being a good sport as I'm a fencer, but if you like high levels of engagement and like the combat style, then it'd be great to give it a try. If you tag me here I'll make sure to check out your journal and comment if you want to know about something fencing-related.

Post-Detox Day 134 Gonna make this quick, I need to get to bed soon. Today has been pretty uneventful; I got a good workout done and approached school with an ‘average’ attitude. I’ve tried a new approach to planning, but ironically the more complex it is the less time I seem to have to complete it. I think I should just try and tackle my work as soon as possible. Gratitude journal I am grateful for having different coloured pens. I am grateful for walking on two legs. I am grateful for a consistent, safe environment. One amazing thing that happened/I did today: By greeting so many people warmly recently, I’ve now been getting friendly greetings from others first. It is a great way to make people’s day. Workout/run Done. Meditation Done, and done twice! Visualisation Yup x2 Daily affirmations Done. Reading + taking notes Done. Getting to bed before 9pm Yesterday there was quite a delay to get to bed, I need to pack up faster. 100% Homework effort NEW! I did lots of planning, not so much working. 80% effort today. Daily social goal “Take on a leadership role in group conversation – e.g. ask the questions people answer to. I want to do this at least twice tomorrow.” I practiced this once. It didn’t result in anything spectacular, but getting comfortable with more group conversation would be something good to get into. Social goal for tomorrow: Make sure to minimise phone usage when there are people around to talk to. Less than 15 minutes of Youtube Yup. No procrastination before studying Again, pretty minimal. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have been more proactive towards my studying. What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to get on with tasks I need to do as soon as I can.

Post-Detox Day 133 Today has been another good day. I had fencing in the afternoon, and watched some Olympics highlights with the family. I packed my school day with activity to get ahead with my studies, and I’m glad overall on how I’ve spent my time today. Gratitude journal I am grateful to have the opportunity to do fencing as a sport. I am grateful for the learning resources I have. I am grateful for plastics and how they transform the way we live. One amazing thing that happened/I did today: Today in fencing I just kept fencing… literally! I went from person to person asking for bouts to make sure I was constantly active and improving my fencing skills. I only get in one practice a week so I’m quite happy to push myself for just that one day of the week. Workout/run I was about to, then skipped it today because I knew I’d get exercise in the afternoon. A poor excuse, I’ll have to do better tomorrow. Meditation Done, another short one though. Visualisation Yup. Daily affirmations Done. Reading + taking notes Done. I’ve now finished reading about proactivity as a habit, I now need to implement it into my daily life. Getting to bed before 9pm I’m on track to get to bed for 9:05 or so. 100% Homework effort NEW! I kept myself busy on the bus home, and most of the way to school. I’d say I’ve given 80% homework effort today, which is pretty good. Daily social goal “Take on a leadership role in group conversation – e.g. ask the questions people answer to. I want to do this at least twice tomorrow.” I kept myself busy with a maths class at lunch, so I didn’t make time for it today. Social goal for tomorrow: Same as yesterday: Take on a leadership role in group conversation – e.g. ask the questions people answer to. I want to do this at least twice tomorrow. Less than 15 minutes of Youtube Yup No procrastination before studying Pretty minimal. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have had my work out. Otherwise today went pretty well. What I will do differently tomorrow: I’m going to be more proactive towards my studying. Photo Stream None today, I didn’t go for a run. Photography lineup Perhaps take a guess where I took this one; it's where I took loads of good photos.

Glad to see you making this effort. Awesome you're starting a gratitude list!

Thanks man! I do what I can