giblets

Any step forward is better than standing still. Accept and enjoy where you are in the process! You've come a long way already.

When you feel yourself crashing, have you tried to have a snack or drink some water?

No sugar will be a huge challenge! A lot of prepared or prepackaged foods and loaded with sugar, especially if they are American (sorry lads). If you have spare time, one of the most effective ways to avoid sugar may be to prepare your own snacks and foods from home. There are some great recipes for natural muesli bars online you can try, though if you are taking the vegan route (sorry a little behind with your journal) it might be a challenge to find an ingredient to get them to stick together - but keep searching you will find something. The great thing about the interwebs is that no matter what you are trying to do, probability says someone has already tried it and posted their musings online!

So I definitely chose the wrong time to kick start my journal again, after a whirlwind few days of travelling and seeing friends and family, so it didn't exactly go to plan as I wanted. The silver lining though is I did finally reply to @Moe Smith - that e-mail has been sitting in my inbox for over a month. Sorry buddy. I still have a big takeaway from this weekend though. I listened to a great podcast - sadly though I can't find the link so I will keep searching and drop it in later when I have a bit more time. Anyway it was one of my financial podcasts, and they were talking a lot about opportunity cost - aka if you invest a dollar or spend a dollar in this area, what are you missing out on by not investing or spending a dollar in another area. Very simple concept, but as soon as I heard it I started thinking about opportunity cost of time. For every minute I spend not studying or on personal development, what is the cost of not focusing on these areas? Ultimately I think I lose 2 minutes for every minute I don't spend in those areas, because not only did I lose that minute surfing the web etc, but I also need to find another minute to spend studying. This line has really resonated with me on the weekend and it is kick starting me to look at what activities in my life I am doing that are not contributing or adding to where I want to be in life. For example, the biggest one I came away from that reflecting is I need to have better quality meditation sessions - if I think they are time sinks, then make them not a time sink by getting more out of them for less time. @WorkInProgress & @Cam Adair - I have to reset my no caffeine count! I didn't realise the gels I was taking before my running sessions have caffeine in them... I'll do some research on some substitutes in the coming days, but until then, back to day zero!

It's back! Wooo!

You got this mate! Just visuallise the benefits that you will gain from removing this vice.

So trying to kick start my journal! I have been going really well but I do miss having a journal so generally I shape plans to overcome my situation through them. I initially wound back my entries because I thought it was such a big time sink, but as of yet I have been unable to find a voice journalling solution. Until then, I have a nice moleskin notebook that fits in my pocket, and I am going to carry it around with me and jot things down during the day, and then choose 1-2 (see how the first few days go) to talk about briefly in my journal. That should re-establish my habit. I have also decided to go on a caffeine detox! I gave up coffee a few years ago when I realised my dependency on it, and I really did not like being a slave to something (hello gaming). I switched it out for tea, but I think all I have done is substituted one vice for another! So today is day 1 of no caffeine.

Japanese or Chinese?

You millenials and your GUIs!

Given numerous health scares connected to early efforts in decaffeination using solvents such as benzene, trichloroethylene, and chloroform, the solvents of choice have become dichloromethane and ethyl acetate. All of those are described as "mildly toxic". Toxic is still toxic. Ultimately, they stilll have caffeine in them as well. Drink plenty of water in the mornings Cam. I found that when I gave up coffee, that a lot of the symptoms I was associating with "needing coffee", such as being lethargic, headaches, mental blocks, irritable - are all symptoms of being dehydrated. Having a coffee masks those feelings because of the side effects of caffeine (short term energy boost, mental agility) so we never address what the actual issue is - we are dehydrated. It is worse in the morning because we have just spent 6+ hours asleep without water. I know you don't like sparkling water , so try water with a squeeze of lemon. Place a glass of it by your bed when you go to sleep, and drink it as soon as you wake up. If you want to keep trying tea - the best one for you will be white tea, followed by green then your usual black. If you want to still have the "ritual" of drinking tea during a break or socially, there are plenty of non-caffienated teas out there that are usually stocked by cafes or supermarkets.

Hi team, Sharing a recent discovery I have found with combining the pomodoro technique with TTS. I have been using pomodoro to force myself to "sit with it", yet still struggling to cope with the sheer amount of reading I need to do, especially when all the words begin to blur into one when my eyes are sore yet still having 7-8 minutes to go for the pomodoro session. A friend got me onto trying TTS - text to speech. It's where you load a wad of text (or a file) into a TTS engine and it reads it out loud to you. I load a PDF into it and sit back and listen to the words, jotting down quick notes as I go. Then, at the end of the pomodoro session, I expand these notes out for the last 25 minutes, and take my break. I have found I can get through about 20 pages and the subsequent notes in 2-3 pomodoros. This is a huge improvement over taking 4-6 for the same amount of pages. I am not entirely sure if I have absorbed more information than reading it, but it feels like it is more effective at this stage (this is only day 2 of trialling it out). The resources I have been using are as follows - Pomodoro timer - Tomato-Timer.com (until I make my own app!) Document reader - FBReader. This is a free app but there are other great alternatives people are talking about, like Moon Reader. TTS Engine - FLite. Comes as an app from the F-Droid app store (and probably Google Play). This is not the greatest engine I think but it is the only one I have managed to get to work so far on my phone, as I run a Google-free version of android. I have found the female US English voice the best one so far. I am going to trial some online/browser based TTS when I have a bit of free time (read: once I have caught up to my studies) to see if they are a bit more fluent but at least this setup works for now. Keen to see if this works for anyone else or if there is improvements to be made to the process!

The hard part is picking up a new activity with your wife though. I feel like our connection has suffered a little now I don't want to watch tv anymore, as that was a activity we shared. It is hard to try and recommend something else to try at the end of a long day when we don't have energy.

Good to hear you are still pushing on, fellow linux patriot! Be careful about the down times between semesters with your studies, they can be the biggest challenges of them all to stay on the path.

Adolf Hitler by John Toland I grabbed this book as a free audiobook with my library and I am learning quite a lot about the start of World War 2 that I was not aware of - mainly how Hitler came to power. It initially was very interesting (again, influenced by how little I think I knew) but it starting to get a bit dry now that I am up to the section where England has declared war. I signed up to Goodreads 2018 reading challenge. The average number of books set by users was 47, so I set mine at 48. I'm only 3 in....

So I'm stressing out quite a lot right now, and hoping that writing a snappy journal entry will calm me down and get me grounded. Breaking down what is stressing me out - I am anxious about an assignment I have due now in 6 days and nervous about the upcoming Ultra trail. I do not believe I am properly prepared for either event. I think I will be somewhat more relaxed towards either event once I get some more preparation in. The horse has bolted on why I don't believe I am properly prepared, so I just need to focus on what I can do from here. For the Ultra trail, I have two marathons coming up this month, including one 50km. While that is not the 12 hour training session I need or have failed to accomplish so far, it will help by putting more mileage into my legs. Pending how I go with my assignment this week I may try to get a 12 hour session in this Sunday. For my studies, I need to get some decent progress on it. Once I have pen to paper (or letters on screen?) I should feel more relaxed and therefore the progress will flow. So here I am up at 0430 to try and get on with it. The silver lining is that it is only 1500 words. Podcast - Jocko Podcast 117: What to Do When You Have Bad Luck I have recommended this podcast on more than one occasion so it is timely to include it in my journal. Even though the title is Bad Luck, Jocko talks a lot about dealing with having your plan questioned by the team, and how to question a plan presented by poor leadership. It really struck home about poor leadership as I am finding it difficult dealing with that at work right now, but re-listening to it about how to deal with having your plan questioned will help me with my anxiety. Key takeaways - Involve the team in the planning process. This will increase their investment and belief in the plan and will be more enthusiastic to execute. It gives you different angles to a problem which will make a more robust plan in general. Welcome questioning of your plan. A lot of leaders will become defensive and close minded when questioned, but if you're open minded and welcome robust discussion. Ensure the questioning comes with solutions though and people are not just focused on poking holes in your plan. Dealing with a poor leader. Rather than openly defying your leader, be more tactful with broad terms or statements. Remain as neutral as possible. If you move to get rid of one bad leader, he could be replaced by another bad leader. By rather than undermining your boss, by openly taking the path of "our leader is not doing so well, we need to step up and help" will earn the respect of your team rather than knowing that you are willing to throw people under the bus. If our boss wins, everyone wins.

Crushing it as always Moe!

So I missed this on Friday because I thought it was on Sunday and I was out camping without data, but better late than me - Happy Birthday to me! It has been 1 year since I reached the realisation I was wasting my life and googled (or specifically, DuckDuckGo'd) "how to quit video games" and found all of @Cam Adair's videos. After binge watching them all, I jumped on the forums and the rest they say is history. There is no way I could have forecast the amount of personal development - or running - I have experienced on this journey. Yet it is still only the beginning! I have seen many people come and go on the forums but it has been a great community of sharing ideas about productivity and development. I am still amazed by how committed Cam has and is to the community - I look forward to celebrating with him in his hipster home away from home of Bondi next month Had a great time camping on the weekend and I ran out of data on the Friday, I thought I would have at least one more day before that would happen, but it has turned out to be a blessing as I really enjoyed not carrying around my phone, and I have continued that this week by not really touching my phone. The main use I have even been having for it has been podcasts as well so I have really cut back its use. Very happy with this - and I think the Digital Declutter podcast has really given me a kick start in this area that I needed. Speaking of podcasts - I have made a spreadsheet of all my favourite podcasts and their key takeaways. I find myself recommending them so much to other people so I don't want to lose track of some podcasts that I find powerful and useful. Looking at the data after a few weeks, School of Greatness with Lewis Howes seems to be the main one I keep reaching for inspiration, which is interesting. I have just passed 700 hours for this year so far, so if I keep up ~200 hours a month I am on track for 2400 hours for the year. I think it will slow down significantly for the second half of the year but that doesn't matter, as long as I keep learning. I am a little excited about a podcast too - the Productivity Show just released one called "Pomodoro Technique 2.0" - this could be interesting! Great quote for today from the audiobook I am listening to while running - "You can't control another man's mind by being an antagonist." It's a little bit dated but the message is sound and again something I needed to hear. I think it could be updated to "You can't shape another person's mind by being an antagonist." Today's podcast - Tim Ferris Show: How To Prioritize Your Life and Make Time for What Matters Key Takeaways: Busy. I have thought for some time that the word "busy" is an excuse that people use as an easy out why they are not progressing or doing what they want to. This podcast really breaks that down, so I see myself recommending this a lot to people! "Busy is a decision". Busy is unauthentic and lazy. It is shorthand for you would rather be doing something else so it is not a priority. It has become "cool" to say we are busy. Courage is more importance and Confidence. When operating out of courage instead of confidence, you're saying you are taking a step into the unknown or the unexpected and you are willing to take what comes from it. This is where great opportunities for learning will come from. The more you use courage and attack new tasks or goals, the more confidence will build in those areas over time. Luck. What might look like luck to you is a lot of hard work done by someone else that you cannot see! This underlines a theory I subscribe to - "luck is a fool's hope".

2.50ghz i5! In my best English accent - "That's a luxury!"

So many good podcasts out there, so little time! The Minimalists is a great place to start, I get a lot of value out of the Productivity Show by Asian Efficiency. Where do your interests lie? I tend to listen to a lot of personal development type podcasts, which helps me focus when I start to wander off track and need a nudge to keep staying focused on achieving.

The Pomodoro Technique is really working for me right now - I have accumulated about 6 hours of study with it now, after a week and a half of not doing any study at all, so I am very happy with it. It also resulted in me going to bed early for once (only 15 minutes until I want to go to bed, do I have time for another block? No, ok I should go to bed now then to fit one in the morning). It combines @Cam Adair's "sit with it", Jocko's discipline, and the Productivity Show's no distractions/digital declutter. The one thing that has stood out to me though is how there isn't an app that controls the technique for you all by itself, eg set a topic to work towards, 25 minute & 5 minute timer, a counter for sessions 1-4, etc. So I thought maybe thats something I can do after this semester or during the break, is write an app to do it. I have wanted to write an app for some time but thought it was a bit too daunting with the amount of effort it would require, but I think this should be straight forward and simple. When I did programming at uni in group projects I always handed the interface to someone else while I worked on the networking or other code behind the scenes, and I think that is where the majority of the work for this would be. The only thought I have is what the copyright of it all would be, I will need to do some reading on that later. Podcast of the Day Productivity Show 182: 3 Simple Steps to Delegating Work the Right Way Takeaways: By not delegating something because "I can do it faster" or "I know how it should be" is a short-sighted thought that is robbing the opportunity for one of my team to learn and in the long run know how to do it faster or how it should be. Unexpected costs. By not delegating certain tasks I am sometimes accepting a side effect, such as a project being late or not getting the attention it needs, and therefore the weak link in the process was me. Definition of done. This is one area I have tripped up a lot in the past, by not giving a clear definition of what complete looks like for a task, I assume the person already knows or will know. Articulate it as part of the delegation, this is what I want it to look like or be able to achieve. Use a whiteboard or a 'mud map' to get my intention across.

This The healthy part of this is the desire (or hunger) it is going to give you for personal growth. The unhealthy part of it is thinking that you're all those things right now. As @Cam Adair has told me many times; understand where you are in the process. You are working your way towards achieving these things and they won't happen overnight. Look at the small victories or the small steps to achieving them and becoming that person. Sometimes I take two steps forward and two steps back with my emotion/impulse control, but what it does do is build my awareness to it and so I can work on it a little bit better next time. Look at how positive it becomes if you add one word: Not enough yet. Not cool enough yet, not smart enough yet, not funny enough yet, not thin enough yet, not fit enough yet, not kind enough yet, not selfless enough yet, not compassionate enough yet, not sustainable enough yet, not talented enough yet, not committed enough yet, not determined enough yet, not strong enough yet, not wise enough yet, not loving enough yet, not productive enough yet. Not good enough for greatness yet. Not perfect yet. I really like it now! It depends on your intent behind Netflix. Is your intent to relax for 20 minutes as a reward (or loot box as Jason Welwood puts it in one of the podcasts) or is it to escape from what you should be doing? Put in a different way, The Minimalists would ask if you are getting value from watching Netflix. Are you learning from your documentaries to make yourself a better person, or are you recharging your brain with the anime? If the answer to those questions are yes, and your intent is in the right place, then there is no issues with it at all. What you'll find during the early days of the detox is your intent will be to replace gaming with consuming content to escape what you should be doing, like being productive or finding hobbies. Try to avoid this. Oh and the cravings will persist for a while longer. I really battled with them until the ~24 days mark, then I was home free. So only roughly ten more days for you

@stablish, what do you think of Deja Dup? The podcast I was listening to today (Going Linux) mentioned it as an easy tool. A quick search found this link. My distro doesn't have it for some reason (even though it's ubuntu) so after your advice before I install it on my machine. I assume I'll still need to make an image of my install that I could restore if need be. Similarly, I was listening to Security Now and one of the hosts is the writer of SpinRite. Is it worth giving that program a try with my hard drive before handing it over to a specialist? Still waiting for my drives to appear.

Smashed out 3.5 hours of study this morning with the pomodoro technique. I found this quote in the journal articles I was reading which I thought valuable - But while an actor’s behaviour certainly does not ‘cause’ a mountain range to rise, it does affect how the mountain range is interpreted, or put another way, what meaning is attached to it.

A couple of more challenging days this week, which has developed into a trend that I would like to stamp out. I think I am mentally in a funk which is having an impact on everything I am trying to do or how I am feeling. It is difficult to put a finger on why I am exactly feeling like this, but through reflecting/meditating to try and find the answer it is a combination of things - being overwhelmed with the study requirements this semester (this topic is intense... but so was the last one), really not enjoying my job this year and my running has slid somewhat which is daunting knowing the 100km looms closer and closer. I am going to try and snap out of it today - I am up early again (a few extra hours sleep would be amazing) and making some journal entries. I have installed the five minute journal app on my phone again after nuking it so will re-establish that habit today as well. From here, I am off to do a large chunk of study. I have been utilising the Pomodori method which has been quite effective - it forces me to sit with it and not be derailed by any distractions, forcing me down the hyper focused route. Then I will get a short run in (probably only 90 minutes), and while it is not the 4hrs+ run I really need to stay conditioned, it will be enough to clear my head and get into the flow for the remainder of the way, which will be a social event to enjoy non-work related conversation without any pressure. All of this will set me up for a great week. I still have been pushing through the podcasts as much as I can. Today's recommendation is: Jocko Podcast Ep1: Jocko & Echo (Discipline, Ownership) Jocko is quite intense. Like, almost unbearably intense. But he did recently go on another podcast I was listening to and his message resonated with me a little so I decided to give his podcast a shot. It tends to get a bit repetitive towards the end but still gave me enough useful takeaways to make it onto my favourites list. Key takeaways: Leadership. The job of a great leader is being able to interact and deal with people that you don't want to work with, whether it be your boss or your subordinates. Your ability to be able to get them to see your point of view without being abrasive and resulting to undermining defines you as a leader. This is definitely a message I needed this week. Discipline. Every journey or path that is slightly harder than the easiest route requires discipline. Our natural tendency is to want to follow the path of least resistance but that is not the path that is going to give the greatest returns or result in achieving your goals. There needs to be discipline to do what it takes, whether that is just getting up early (5am) when you want to sleep in or not eating that donut (he refers to donuts a lot in his podcast, they must be his mortal enemy!). Discipline also extends to making yourself relax or rest when your body needs it rather than pushing too hard. Ownership. You may have not caused a problem but you can own a problem. Leaders need to take ownership of problems rather than passing the responsibility (passing the buck) to someone else. This is an opportunity for development and to prove your skills as a leader by taking onboard challenges.

Cheap sushi on special usually equals a sore belly and some time on the porcelain throne I'll check out the Six Pillars book, hopefully it is on audible. I cannot agree with you enough about changing your environment. Whenever I am having issues focusing or staying on track or remaining motivated, changing my environment always pays dividends. It can be something as small as changing rooms, or going for a run to clear your head etc. Keep us informed on your running progress!