AlexTheGrape

The weekend has been a blast! I worked on Friday night, went to the university ball on Saturday night, and went to a friend's leaving party on Sunday night. It resulted in me being very tired on Monday. I also had time during the day on both weekend days which I could have spent more wisely, so I need to be more conscious of that in future. Today has been an average day of working; I unfortunately had to flag going to robotics to get more studying done though. I only got less then 3 hours of studying/work done, so if I want to do my best I'll need to make the most of travel time. I also want to do a weekly reflection again, as it would help a lot with iterating and learning from my mistakes. I'm grateful for being a team leader and class representative. I'm grateful for the buses that go from university. I'm grateful for the dinner I received tonight.

Today has been a pretty good day! I went to the gym in the morning and did my usual schedule. I find I'm not performing as well as I did before the holidays, no doubt due to not going there enough during the holidays and last week. I booked in to get a new schedule though, so it'll be a great way to revive my interest in gyming. I had a relatively non-social day of doing study work and such, but I still didn't get all that much done. It seems that avoiding studying has been a theme recently through procrastination and doing other jobs that aren't course related. I'll simply need to work harder! In the evening I did some robotics with my team and we continued prototyping stuff. It has been really interesting for me to learn about the different parts that go into a metal based piece of machinery and the mechanisms, I've really enjoyed it there. I've also started listening to Cam's podcast again, it has actually been really helpful for me to reflect. I'm grateful for a purring cat on my lap. I'm grateful for the flexibility of doing one of my papers online. I'm grateful for being able to go to a ball this weekend!

My post for yesterday: Today has been a relatively relaxed day. I walked the dog in the morning (I was still sore from my last workout with a friend!) and went to university as usual. I had my first meeting with my innovent team, which is an entrepreneurialism paper I'm doing similar to the social innovation competition I did earlier this year. The meeting went well, and as the team leader I think I did a good job. Next time I'll just need to be a little more cautious about how much it appears I need reassurance, as I asked someone afterwards about a couple things. Feedback is always good though. I also had a meeting with my lecturers for that paper, as I'm one of the class representatives. It was a good conversation about politics and the youth of today, the best I've had on that type of topic. In the evening I cooked dinner and did some chores, but it was more as a form of procrastination than anything productive. I'll need to work on that in future!

GQ post 30.7.2017 Today has been an average day. I got up late due to tiredness, and procrastinated in the morning quite a lot before getting anything done. I had a call with my accountability partner though, and I’ve reflected yet again that I need to be posting here daily to keep on track with self-development. I got some studying done and worked in the evening. Post for yesterday: Today has been relatively good day; I had an early start, worked out with a friend, and managed to get some decent work done. I wrote in my planner as a reflection to keep focused when studying. Post for today: Today has been another decent day. My muscles and back are sore from the workout yesterday, and I walked the dog instead of going to the gym. My downfall has been not making use of my time travelling. A lot of my time that could be used for studying has been taken up by non-curricular activities, namely robotics today (2.5+ hours!). To make sure I’m keeping up with my coursework, I’ll need to use my travel time wisely. Even if I’m all caught up (unlikely), I can always finish an email to one of my pen pals. I'm grateful for the robotics club at university. I'm grateful for the leadership roles I've picked up recently. I'm grateful for having programming experience.

Thank you! Yeah I think I'm getting back on track.

Quick update: The start of this week has been a blur of activity: University has started and I’m going through the motions again. Yesterday I attended a meeting and induction for the robotics association at university, it was a crucial step for me to get started with robotics at university. Recently I cooked dinner with my brother and it was a great bonding experience. We prepared enough food to last us two days! I’m very happy with the papers I’m doing this semester, they’re generally the ones I’m most interested in. Today I was voted as a class representative for my entrepreneurial paper, and I’m very happy with this outcome and my improvised speech I made today for it.

Wow thank you, that means a lot! This level of journalling and self-awareness does come at the cost of time, but it is definitely something that kept me on the right track.

Thanks! I hope it serves you well. I add and remove things often, but for me it is a great way to reflect each day.

Thanks Cam!

Sorry to mislead you, but they are actually ones I had from a few months ago, I left them there so that I would see them and replace them. As of yet I don't have new goals to replace them, so I'll be working on them soon. I'll be keeping the same format though, thanks for the support!

Detox Attempt IV – Day 19 Today has been a cool day in general. I got up on time, meditated well, and caught up with a friend in the city. In the evening I cooked dinner again, and I’m happy with the progress I’m making with being able to cook by myself. Gratitude journal I am grateful for having cool friends to spend time with. I am grateful for the sun despite the winter. I am grateful for having several pairs of shoes. One amazing thing that happened/I did today: Simply talking with my friend that I was catching up with today was a great experience, we were able to keep the conversation flowing for almost two hours nonstop, I couldn’t help smiling a lot. Workout/run Running the dog again. Better than last time, but not what I wanted previously. Daily task planning ahead of time Done. Exercise planning Same as yesterday, except yesterday I didn’t stick to my plan. “Tomorrow I’m heading out to the city to work out at the university gym!” Meditation Yup! Visualisation Nope. I need new goals, and I’ve tasked myself with that tomorrow. Daily affirmation Nope. Fully cold shower I chickened out today, but I’ll try again tomorrow. Reading + taking notes Nope, I got home from work real late. Getting to bed before 10:10pm Nope. Jar of Awesome Nope. Japanese learning Nope. Currently this isn’t a priority so I might scrap it for now. Cook a meal + Cooking journal Yup, and not yet (again). Daily application of self-development skills “Tomorrow I’ll make sure to keep conversation flowing, and using the ford method to come up with conversation topics if needed.” I definitely achieved this goal today, tomorrow I’m going to try be spontaneous with my conversation (no canned topics) by talking about what I see, the other person, and myself. Programming Nope. Damn! I need to set a time to do this. I now have an alarm for 4pm. Guitar playing Nope. Social journal Not yet, I need to fill it in tomorrow morning. What went well today: Most things! What didn’t go well today: Being slow when it came to household tasks. I listened to music which made it more fun, but also made me focus less. What I could have done to make my day better: I could have timed myself to do things that I knew would need hurrying. What I will do differently tomorrow: Time myself doing repetitive or other time-consuming tasks. Photo Stream This is another favourite I took whilst on my recent skiing trip.

Detox Attempt IV – Day 19 Today has been a good day in general. I started off the day by getting up on time, meditating well, and giving the dog a run. I had a friend over in the morning who I played the Risk board game with, we then made pancakes for lunch. On Sunday I went to the gym and played card games with my brother and his friends for most of the day, it was pretty fun! I then worked in the evening. On Monday I didn’t do well with meditation, but I kept relatively busy during the day by sorting out a new stereo for my car. I made dinner in the afternoon, and I’m happy that I made something new to me. Gratitude journal I am grateful for having an awesome stereo. I am grateful for having this time off. I am grateful that the greatest of my troubles are insignificant compared to the rest of the world. One amazing thing that happened/I did today: Spending time making pancakes with my friend today was great in many ways. Learning a few tricks from him and trying different methods was a good bonding experience. Workout/run A run with the dog. Not intense, and I’ll need to do more next time. Daily task planning ahead of time Doing that now… Done! Exercise planning Tomorrow I’m heading out to the city to work out at the university gym! Meditation Yup! Visualisation Nope. I need new goals! Daily affirmation Nope. Fully cold shower No. I have been considering doing them recently, I’m going to commit to doing it tomorrow and will post how it goes. Reading + taking notes Nope. Getting to bed before 10:10pm Nope. Jar of Awesome Nope. Japanese learning Nope. Cook a meal + Cooking journal Yup, and not yet. Daily application of self-development skills Tomorrow I’ll make sure to keep conversation flowing, and using the ford method to come up with conversation topics if needed. Programming Nope. Guitar playing Nope. Social journal Yup. Weekly Goal(s) Don’t fail a single day of my success streak! (Sadly failed). Get to know the neighbours in one house this week. Monthly Goal(s) (I have an extra weekly goal). Old 3 Month Goal (1 month left!) My three month goal is to develop my leadership skills enough to confidently coach a sports team or lead another form of community group. 3 Month Goal Expand my holiday programme to a running business/be running my own community group within my neighbourhood. Know my neighbours from at least 100 households/have them as contacts for my holiday programme. 12 Month Goal Be running my own community group, hosting public events (more detail needed) 48 Month Goal Have grown my holiday programme/community group to be accessible by at least half of the NZ population. Have the skills (namely leadership) to have my options open for being an entrepreneur or having a normal job. What went well today: Starting my day on time and meditating. What didn’t go well today: General procrastination. What I could have done to make my day better: Plan out what I want to do the day before. What I will do differently tomorrow: Make my plans the day before! (Now!) Photo Stream This is one of my favourite photos I took on a recent skiing trip to the South Island of NZ.

Good attitude! I really need to keep that in mind. As perfectionism was a major obstacle that made me try nothing in the past. Same here! I sometimes need someone else to hurry me as I'll be a perfectionist when it comes to preparing ingredients too. Best of luck trying those things!

Very true! It is easier to get back into activities than it is to start new ones.

My post for yesterday: Today has been another OK day, I didn't manage to do meditation etc but I got started on programming again and played my guitar a little bit. I feel doing these activities will really help me keep in touch with the field I wish to pursue, even if my coursework isn't that related. The day before yesterday I spent a lot of time to cook paella, a Spanish dish. I didn't do it all right, but I'm glad I know what I need to improve on next time. I want to do my big post style again, but I need to put in the time and effort first. I likely won't start tomorrow as I'll be off to a birthday party, but I need to start very soon.

You're probably right. Having the counter could help me be more aware of how much time has passed since I have gone without gaming, which will help me gauge how much I should be achieving.

Thank you Mettermrck for the support! Thanks Tom! As long as I keep posted daily, I'll keep learning and growing, so thanks again for showing your support.

My post for yesterday: Today has been an easy day, mostly because I didn't do anything difficult and I didn't meet my commitments that day. This is because I wrote up a list of things I wanted to do daily, but didn't achieve most of them and wasted a lot of time watching TV with the family. Whether or not watching TV with the family is a waste of time is something of opinion, but I could definitely get us to eat at the table, talk, and then do more productive things on my own or with them. I'm not going to bother with the detox counter because I'm confident I'll breeze through the time; I have removed all my video games from my steam library and have already gotten used to not gaming for one and a half years.

Thanks for the support guys, it is important to recognize the self-awareness I've developed, and how I can use it moving forward. I've decided on doing a bunch of activities which helped me in the past. They involve programming, playing the guitar, exercising, and a few others. I need to start writing full, regular posts as I need to do all these tasks consistently. Today I went to an engineering firm (the biggest in NZ) to see what working there would be like, and to connect with a few people within the business. I'm confident I'd rather work in a larger engineering firm rather than a smaller one. Tomorrow, I need to plan out my day in the morning, and ideally go to the local gym here too.

Relapse. It embarrasses me to say it, but I've relapsed. I played 2-3 hours of gaming for about a week, and it has left me feeling terrible. It has dropped my self-worth and confidence back to new lows and I now need to get back up. There is a long list of contributing factors to why this happened, so I'll just mention them briefly. I started spending more time with my old gamer friends, I had stopped sport (except for gyming), I had stopped posting and reflecting, I had stopped doing hobbies that I enjoyed, I worked hard during exam time with very little break time, no longer had any way to reward myself, was feeling isolated, the steam summer sale came up, and I didn't feel good after my last exam. The main idea is: I had stopped doing all the things that made me successful over the past year since I quit gaming. I'm not proud of myself in the slightest. After all this time going without games, people thought that I wouldn't have relapsed, even my gamer brother was disappointed. I now need to face the embarrassment, and pick myself up. I've removed all the games from my steam account (you can do that now) and am on the road to recovery. I've had a whole week without gaming so far (mostly because I was on a skiing trip) and I'll post soon to start my fourth 90 day detox.

Update: My exams are over, and I'm free! I've been getting the chore-like things done recently like giving my room a proper cleanout, doing shopping, cooking for the family etc but it has been an engaging weekend so far. I am currently needing to set long term goals and make visualisations accordingly, as it is something that I have struggled with recently. I'll try keep posted daily, but otherwise things are going well.

Thanks for the comment! Yeah I figured that this keeps it similar to going to high school, as I'd move around to get to a different class. At the end of a class students typically feel bored or tired, but when they have a walk, then sit down in a new environment and around different people, we are refreshed enough to do work on a new subject. On that note, changing the topic studied often can help too. I thought I should plan it out, but there are about four buildings in my university I can go to to always get a space so it didn't really require planning. I did two hour sessions today whilst changing location between each one, but I should definitely do the single hours and moving tomorrow. If you give it a go (although I believe school/university is finishing for the year in the US?) please let me know!

It has been over a week since I last posted, wow! I've been studying hardcore since then, as my end of semester exams start in half a week now. Today has been an average day of studying. I managed to do approximately 10 hours of studying today which is the best I've done, however the quality of the work done hasn't been the best. I've been doing huge chunks of work and become quite unproductive towards the end of it. Tomorrow I'll make sure to just do 1 hour sessions, which involve packing up and moving to another building to work between sessions, as this activity has kept me more alert and able to focus when I do. I'll need to work tomorrow evening so I'll likely skip my workout. I've had some gaming cravings recently because I'm so bored a lot of the time, but I think it is just something that comes along with studying so many hours with few and small breaks. I'm looking forward to doing a skiing trip in a couple weeks time, it should be great fun! As soon as my exams are over I think I want to start a few things like cooking fancy meals, but also getting back into programming and photography. I'm grateful for there being so many computers around university. I'm grateful for the amazing lunches I've been able to make myself recently. I'm grateful for the time I have to study.

Today has been a relatively good one. I got up at the usual time, went to the gym in the morning, and went to my lectures. My studying wasn't too productive today, but I made burritos for the family this evening. There was still heaps left over, so it was a good use of time and I finally used up the last of my personal groceries that were going to go off soon. Tomorrow I'm going to run to the gym to slash my travel time, and stay at uni until about 7pm to get the maximum amount of studying done. I have finished my non-fiction book I've been reading, so I'll be getting back into self-development books. Tomorrow I'll make sure to make the most of my time, lets see how this goes!

This week has been another super busy one, but probably one of the busiest! Cutting out the non-essentials has been working well for me, however I have still been locked into many commitments this week in my workplace and for my business group. I studied hard for a maths test on Thursday, and I'm confident that I did really well during that test. On Saturday I went to the Kickstart Final, which is the pitching competition that my business enterprise group and I have been building up towards. Our hard work has paid off, because we came first place and won $500 to put towards our business! I'm not sure if we'll still go ahead with making the business or if we'll just take it as a great learning experience, but I'm very happy with the result and the skills I've learned along the way. Studying in the weekend was not up to par, so it seems I'll need to revert back to going to the university to study, as I'm always tempted to spend much more time than I should on breaks whilst at home. Here's a photo of my kickstart team! Also here's one with the judges.