NEW VIDEO: Why You MUST Quit Gaming in 2025
giblets
-
Posts
815 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by giblets
-
-
Anything that makes you more productive gets a vote in my books!
-
Because no matter how dependent you are on gaming, there is always something better you could be doing with your time.
This.... is my new mantra.
-
06 May 17
Game Free: 19 (17 Apr)
So yesterday someone asked me some questions about Raspberry Pi. Sweet in my element. Sadly though, it was about whether you could run x86 programs on it. After a quick google, I found ExaGear, which looks promising. But, then it leads to googling whether ExaGear and Steam worked together... which leads to YouTube videos of steam games working on the Pi. Which lead to me being angry of going down that rabbit hole again. So I ended up shutting down my computer and doing angry cleaning of the house... the silver lining in this cloud is the house looks really nice now!
It was a good realisation or mnemonic that I am addicted. I keep telling myself it's not that bad and I could handle it I just want to go down this path to be more productive, but the way it can so easily hijack my mind and take over, next thing you know, hours have passed and I haven't done any study or anything. Scary shit.
22 days is coming up. Little bit anxious about it this morning. I might try to not even come near my desk on day 22 - which I think is Monday.
-
Hey Moe, even Superman had his kryptonite!
Glad to see you onboard. I know that feeling of being angry at yourself for not achieving anything - especially when your wife leaves for the day and you take a day off work to do something like study or clean or something, and you begin the day with "oh I'll just play for 5 minutes before I get started" which generally ends with your wife's keys in the door and you haven't moved.
-
05 May 17
Game Free: 18 (17 Apr)
Well somehow my days are all out here. I think it's because I have shifted when I do my daily journal from as soon as I wake up to whenever I feel motivated/can fit it in to the day. I took it out of my morning routine after the anxiety issue last week because I don't think it is helping as much as I thought. Still searching for that outlet!
Yesterday was a productive day, somewhat. I managed to do another submission to my study - I would like to do one more before I start on my research essay, but the topic is so dry I think I will try to at least come up with a framework for my research essay today so it feels like I am getting traction on that, since it is 2500 words this time and is due in about three weeks.
I feel a little bit trapped at the moment. Work is not challenging me and I am still searching for a good hobby I guess to replace my gaming. I have been tinkering a bit with raspberry pi, so thats what I am using to fill the void. Not an exciting project either - just setting up an install to be my primary PC, removing packages, installing apps etc. Still aiming to use it as my work machines so I have no temptation whatsoever to play games or waste time.
Only 5 more days for a new record for games free.
-
Thanks for the headsup about Study Checker! I will test it out to see if it makes me more productive.
-
A really good post! A lot of the points you presented are part of Buddhism's values, which I attribute a lot of my development in self awareness and maturity to.
I really liked that 40% video and it's a great concept, but I wonder how you condition your mind to not pack it in once you reach that wall? I am curious on two fronts, a) because it means I could get more out of my day, and b) I have a marathon coming up that I want to finish!
-
I didn't notice any improvement in my sleeping. I still wake up in the night quite often, but the weird thing is that it only happens, when I have to work. When I'm free I can sleep the whole night, without waking up. Really want to discover how I could change that, because my energy level is really drained when it gets around 3PM.
Haha this is me if I have a morning plane to catch. It's your brain stressing out that you will miss your commitments so keeps waking you up early to make sure you're not late. I always do my best to not book morning flights now!
This is an interesting topic. I have been recording my sleeping habits for the last 4 years, ever since I first got a pebble smartwatch, so it would be interesting to compare/benchmark.
-
Is anyone a Raspberry Pi enthusiast?
I really enjoy tinkering with it (or at least the idea of tinkering with it) and building little projects for the lols. I have always wanted to get my hands dirty with them and I think now is the time, spurred on by using a Pi as my computer at home rather than my gaming machine to create another barrier between me and playing games.
I removed the Minecraft & python games entries tonight because I hated how they were staring at me.
Anyway, it could be a fun hobby to fill the void and wondering if anyone else here likes them, we could start a group.
-
03 May 17
Game Free: 16 (17 Apr)
Very quiet day, except for one awesome piece of news. Got an e-mail last night from Cam saying he was doing a talk while I am in Vegas - I couldn't believe my luck! After the challenging few days/week that I have had recently it really felt like a bit of a lifeline. Absolutely can't wait for the trip now, I thought I was excited before!
No real urges to play any games - though a friend asked me to after work today. I declined and said I had to study instead. Not a total lie - I do have a lot of study I need to finish for this subject. Managed to get a submission done today and submitted, and that is only scratching the surface of what I need to do. I think that is making me feel more relaxed, knowing I have completed something and am progressing at least in one way or another. Plus I just unplugged my games machine and couldn't be arsed plugging it all back in again
-
Good luck mate! We're here to help.
-
Hang in there, you have 4 more days than me.
I'm surprised as you have a lot of goals. I would get stressed out and give up if I were you.
It's feasible that it could be the cause of my anxiety, but unlikely. I find that I get more stressed out if I don't have any goals and get angry about wasting time. That's what drove me here in the first place. Thanks for the vote of confidence though.
02 May 17
Game Free: 15 (17 Apr)
The week is going good so far, no issues with anxiety and only minor hiccups with fumbling for words, etc. Resorting to my old methods of just avoiding words that are going to be a problem for me. My memory is still shot though, I totally forgot I had committed myself to a meeting today and was only reminded about it late last night so I didn't have the correct preparation ready. I probably need to look into how to fix this too, but I think it is a smaller problem than trying to overcome my anxiety problems. Chances are they are linked as well. Unplugged games machine for good, and finally got a box to put all my games stuff into so I can put it out in the shed. Now if I can get over this stomach bug I will be able to close those goals out.
-
01 May 17
Game Free: 14 (17 Apr)
I am still disappointed that anxiety took over me for the last few days of last week. I don't know why it came back with a vengeance either, that's the frustrating part. I thought this journal was the outlet I needed to keep it under control, but it obviously isn't working. I also thought forcing myself to stay productive meant my brain was happy that I was progressing rather than being idle and causing it to overthink everything. That hasn't worked either. Normally this would be my cue to escape into gaming to ignore all the feelings, but I need to confront them and work out what the problem is. I just don't know what angle to take now, as it feels like I have tried everything.
-
"Hey anxiety! Great to see you today mate! I haven't seen you for a while and was wondering how you were going? I wasn't enjoying being productive today and having effective work relationships at all until you arrived!"
Said no-one ever.
-
27 Apr 17.
Haven't progressed looking into a format I like to take my journal offline yet. Right now I am just copying and pasting it into a word document, which doesn't exactly keep all the formatting. I think a spreadsheet would be better as I could track if I have completed my goals or not and how long they are going without being achieved etc. But anyway, the reason I haven't progressed with that idea is there are too many other goals that I am prioritising over it to try and get done, primary my budget spreadsheet. I am not keeping up with inserting a budget function a day.
I broke my language streak! I didn't even realise I had missed this until this morning and I saw the notification still on my phone. There is no excuse for this - I allowed myself to get distracted again by preoccupation. Yesterday I was distracted by looking for raspberry pi parts/accessories. I probably should look into a program of how to control my preoccupation, because for every situation it has worked in my favour, there is a situation like this where I am annoyed because I forgot to do something. Or to look into some memory classes?
Not much else happened yesterday/today. Moving constantly all day so not much time to sit and dwell about games, which again I think is a good thing.
Days:
- Game Free: 9 (26 Apr)
- Facebook Free: 1 (25 Apr)
- Alcohol Free: 1 (25 Apr)
- Running Training: 1 (26 Apr)
- Language Training: 0 (26 Apr)
Today I was grateful for:
- My Dad helping me out last week with some jobs around the house. The two aspects of my house that I am really enjoying at the moment he helped me fix up. Didn't complain or want anything in return, just shared his experience and skills openly. We need more people like this.
Today I learned:
- Never work with children and animals! Whatever actor said that is a smart man.
Goals completed today:
- Did not achieve anything I set out to do yesterday morning. This is upsetting.
- Enrolled in studies for next semester; I am a sucker for punishment.
Goals I didn't complete today:
- Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
- Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
- Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
- Didn't maintain language streak.
- Work out how to select a date range and corresponding cells from a spreadsheet.
Goals for tomorrow:
- Work out how to select a date range and corresponding cells from a spreadsheet.
- Sort all my electronic peripherals to work out what I need to order for my laptop project.
- Put all game accessories in the shed.
GTD Tip for tomorrow:
- Tried out not replying to emails for 24 hours yesterday. Worked fine and my stress was a lot lower! I would like to do this again to work it into a habit.
Goals for this week:
- Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
- Finish my fundraising page.
- Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
- Keep my spending under $100 for the week.
- Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
- Try to talk to my leadership coach. Prioritise my goals.
- Start my research essay.
- Start building a timelapse project for the garden.
- Start to achieve some of these goals so it's not a stale copy and paste!
-
26 Apr 17.
So I'm considering taking my journal offline. I think some of the topics I want to write (and think about) during this process are TL;DR for this forum, so it may be a good idea just to keep it offline in a word or excel document. I will reflect on this again today but that is definitely what I am leaning towards. I will include it in my weekly goals to make a decision by the end of the week.
So the last 48 hours were really good, but again really busy. I realised last night that maybe I have overloaded myself a little bit since my last relapse, and I might be wearing myself out. I will need to rethink how much I am trying to achieve, maybe on the 27th I will have a chance to sit down and reflect on this. I am very happy with what I have achieved though, but I think I need to rest a bit.
So the "I'm a healer" thing is still happening, and it's quite random when it occurs. It's frustrating, mainly because I think I am letting it get to me too much because I don't know what is causing it, which is a bit of preoccupation in itself. I need to do some more research to see how I can break this crap.
Caught up with a mate yesterday for lunch, and the topic of discussion did cover games from the last couple of weeks, as he is primarily the main person I play games with (or used to). I was a bit worried about this, I thought afterwards I might have to battle with preoccupation, but it didn't follow. Very happy about that. I wonder if that is a combination of my self-improvement mentality after the relapse, or whether I have cut my gaming so low, even without achieving the 90 day detox, that I am no longer seeing it as something I need to enjoy myself. Who knows, but I am happy with it nonetheless. If only I could break the "I'm a healer" thing next....
Days:
- Game Free: 8 (26 Apr)
- Facebook Free: 0 (25 Apr)
- Alcohol Free: 0 (25 Apr)
- Running Training: 0 (25 Apr)
- Language Training: 6 (19 Apr)
Today I was grateful for:
- Open source software. I have become such a fan of it in the last 7+ years, that I probably should do something about it, such as contribute somehow or make a donation.
Today I learned:
- Raisin toast. Talk about a baby distractor!
Goals completed today:
- Maintained language streak. Got my 5 ingots for achieving a week streak, and then immediately doubled down to keep going.
- Assignment submitted! Not happy with its quality, but it is a step in the right direction. Now to start on the next one.
- Got a haircut!
Goals I didn't complete today:
- Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
- Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
- Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
Goals for tomorrow:
- Maintain language streak.
- Work out how to select a date range and corresponding cells from a spreadsheet.
- Sort all my electronic peripherals to work out what I need to order for my laptop project.
- Put all game accessories in the shed.
GTD Tip for tomorrow:
- Still the same as I haven't had a chance to implement it yet - Wait 24 hours before replying to emails.
Goals for this week:
- Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
- Finish my fundraising page.
- Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
- Keep my spending under $100 for the week.
- Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
- Try to talk to my leadership coach. Prioritise my goals.
- Start my research essay.
- Start building a timelapse project for the garden.
- Start to achieve some of these goals so it's not a stale copy and paste!
-
I can relate to all or nothing thinking. The key is to use this energy and thinking for things that will help us grow. What are some things you're passionate about? Because we go tend to “all in” on things that make us feel good, we have the advantage of using this mindset for positive things that will take our minds off of gaming. Your 22 days are not lost. This is one day at a time. We learn more about ourselves each time we fall short. They key is to continue pushing forward as it sounds like you are. Staying accountable is a huge part of this journey as well so thanks for checking in.
I am trying to use this to my advantage and entrench new hobbies or passions, but my brain just loves to slip back to thinking about gaming.
I am trying to do more with electronics, with wiring, soldering and building my own gadgets. That's what really interests me right now, so I am trying to make that my main aim/thought, with the long term aim of automating as much as possible. I'd love to start my own automation business one day, where I could go to country areas or towns where they generally don't have access to this technology, or at least this expertise, and automate their mundane tasks.
I definitely think I am being far more productive ever since the relapse, so I am definitely more thankful for that.
-
23 Apr 17.
For some reason I keep waking up in the morning and thinking about someone asking me what I do for a living, and I always respond with "I'm a healer". What the heck? Why does my brain think this? Obviously there is a massive connection somewhere in my brain that I have reinforced over the years of games. The reason I can guarantee its from gaming is usually the next thing that flicks into my brain is my World of Warcraft character, a druid, which was a healer. I haven't played WoW for probably a year, since my son arrived and I could no longer devote time to being on a headset and giving my complete focus to a dungeon or whatever, so why does my brain keep thinking that? I really would like to work this out.
Yesterday was really good. My wife went out with the day with my son in order to let me study all day. I only left the house once, and that was to go for a run at about 3pm because I was going crazy of sitting staring at a screen for so long, all the words were blurring together and no longer sinking in. The rest of the day was reading journals non stop. The good news is I completed my last discussion point online. I would like to do more work on those, but I don't have time, I need to focus on my assignment now which is due today. Sadly the discussion point took an extra day than I was budgeting for, so now I only have one day left for my assignment. I guess the silver lining is I had a framework for the assignment already and 1000 words completed, so I only need to add an extra 500 and fine tune it, but it means now that I am not going to get it to the standard I wanted. This is always my problem, but I blamed it on games, this time I don't really have an excuse. I should of stopped running for the last week or so to save my energy for studying, but hindsight is 20/20.
Yesterday I also fell into the trap of watching a couple of speed run videos on youtube of arcade games. I am glad I didn't relapse into gaming, but I am disappointed I wasted some time on this, not just when I watched the videos but the inevitable preoccupation that followed. I lost maybe 2 hours of productivity as a result which is disappointing. I think the trigger to do this was talking to a few mates about games, a few of them called me for life advice early in the morning and we touched on games, and that was all it took. It takes so little effort for me to fall back into that hole so I really need to keep an eye on it.
Probably will not make a journal entry tomorrow - I am travelling to see my family for ANZAC Day on Tuesday. I think I will be able to get back to an entry on Tuesday night when I get home. It's possible I could get an entry tomorrow as I am taking my laptop to keep studying, but I am not promising anything. A lot of my habits I am trying to build with my tracker will have to be paused tomorrow as well. Hopefully the impact will be minimal.
Days:
- Game Free: 6 (17 Apr)
- Facebook Free: 6 (17 Apr)
- Alcohol Free: 5 (18 Apr)
- Running Training: 2 (21 Apr)
- Language Training: 4 (19 Apr)
Today I was grateful for:
- GTD Podcast, again, and that it's free. They have different interviews with various people, business owners, entrepreneurs, etc. They tend to always say/recommend the same thing - today it was about closing your inbox again and avoiding distractions on your phone. Love it.
- My wife spending the whole day out of the house so I could study. I know this isn't something she wanted to do, and would of impacted my son's nap schedule, but it let me absorb so much study material.
- My massive balcony that is letting me experiment with gardening. Always loved gardening, I think I got that from my Grandpa and my Dad, but I have never been good at it.
Today I learned:
- How ridiculously easy it is for me to get preoccupied with games. This is dangerous.
Goals completed today:
- Completed language training again. My 5 ingots is going strong.
- Talked to friends on the phone and gave a bunch of life advice. Happy with this. I think it helps me more than them.
- Drank a boatload of water, and felt a lot better this morning. Need to ensure I repeat it again today.
- GTD Podcast. Ep 28 - "Mind Mapping". I think this mind mapping made more sense to me than the last one, but still need to put effort into it.
- Submitted discussion point #2.
Goals I didn't complete today:
- Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
- Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
- Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
Goals for tomorrow:
- Maintain language streak. I have 5 ingots riding on this.
- Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
- Submit my assignment.
- Get a haircut, hippy.
GTD Tip for tomorrow:
- Wait 24 hours before replying to emails.
Goals for this week:
- Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
- Finish my fundraising page.
- Submit both my tertiary study assignments. (first one completed!)
- Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
- Keep my spending under $100 for the week. (failed!)
- Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
- Try to talk to my leadership coach. Prioritise my goals.
-
Today is 41th day game free, a new record. I thought of my fav game this week, but it wasn't a longing/nostalgic feeling. It felt more like a 'I used to wear these type of shirts. I still think they're kinda cool. This person who wears it is pretty rad. But they don't suit me anymore.' kinda feeling.
This; inspiring! 41 days is epic. Are you pushing for the 90 days?
I like your mindset of not suiting you anymore, that could be very useful to self-improvement!
-
22 Apr 17.
Another busy day. Tried to mix up work and study but it didn't really play out that well, I ended up working much more than I wanted to, and got virtually zero study done. Puts a bit of pressure onto today, now 48 hours left to get both assignments completed. I did get some social invites out this weekend and yesterday, but I declined them all due to study commitments. I am proud of this, usually I think I can mix the two but after a couple of beers I can't study at all and it's a wasted day. The good thing is nobody got upset or questioned it so I am not annoyed by it or anything.
Woke up early again this morning even though it is Saturday, to try and knock off as many things off my habit tracker as early as possible before focusing on study for the rest of the day. I have done a lot of that so far, but for some reason I left this entry until last. I think because yesterday I really struggled with the entry because I felt so dehydrated and today I was preoccupied with a formula for my budget spreadsheet that I just HAD to put in - as I was wrestling with it for a few days. The good news is it worked, so now I have to do 2 less clicks per transaction entry. My ultimate goal is to only have to enter 2 bits of data for every entry so its quick and easy and I don't find it painful, but still get all the analysis that I want that I had set up in my old budget spreadsheet. It's already achieving it's aim, as it displays totals of where all my money has been going and identifies I am spending too much in some areas, such as spending 20% of my paycheck in April on electronics... that's an extreme number. Need to bring that down for sure.
Other than that, very little of interest went on yesterday. I went for another run, and I am finding the thing that is holding me back is my legs. I finished the run not puffed or exhausted at all, but my legs were pillars of concrete. I really need to fix that somehow. My average pace per km is now sub-7 minutes, which is an improvement from when I have started, but I am not entirely sure if my legs are feeling better or getting better. Going to register for a city run in a couple of months which is 14km, that will be the test of how I am going!
MUST nail study today.
Days:
- Game Free: 5 (17 Apr)
- Facebook Free: 5 (17 Apr)
- Alcohol Free: 4 (18 Apr)
- Running Training: 1 (21 Apr)
- Language Training: 3 (19 Apr)
Today I was grateful for:
- Stackoverflow. I have only just discovered this site, and it basically gave me the formula I needed for my budget spreadsheet. I need to check out this website more, there might be some other great nuggets around.
- The weather! Weather at the moment is so conducive to getting things done, and has been holding out for the majority of the week. I hope it holds out for another week so I can get back on track with my running, and not get sick at the same time!
Today I learned:
- That old consoles, while I knew were collected by some people, are astronomically expensive. Some of them are worth the same as modern Xboxes. That's crazy. I wonder if investors see it as a legitimate area for them, or if because there are so many variables to keep them working that it isn't seen as feasible.
Goals completed today:
- Completed language training again. My 5 ingots is going strong.
- Called multiple friends to chat about random stuff. Really happy I did that, plus it meant I invested less time of messaging and staring at my phone. I have only become aware of how much this annoys me lately when people keep doing it at the dinner table, so I want to avoid it as much as possible.
- Drank a boatload of water, and felt a lot better this morning. Need to ensure I repeat it again today.
- GTD Podcast. It was about the "Black Belt GTD". To be honest didn't really like it, but I was trying to work at the same time so maybe I need to listen to it again without distractions.
- Created a list in my budget spreadsheet of what functions or reports I would like, which should shape my goal of inserting one per day.
Goals I didn't complete today:
- Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
- Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
- Call a friend or family member. Reached out to some friends to line up a phone conversation but they didn't respond.
- Did not drink enough water, did not drink 500ml as soon as I woke up.
- GTD podcast. Didn't have the opportunity to disconnect from my environment and listen to a podcast due to work.
- Submit my second discussion point.
- Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
Goals for tomorrow:
- Maintain language streak. I have 5 ingots riding on this.
- Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
- Submit my second discussion point.
- Work on my assignment.
- Rebuild running training streak.
GTD Tip for tomorrow:
- Full screen my word editor and set all devices to 'do not disturb' to focus on study. It takes 20 minutes (I think) to rebuild focus after being distracted, so aim to remove the distractions.
Goals for this week:
- Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
- Finish my fundraising page.
- Submit both my tertiary study assignments. (1/2 of first one completed!)
- Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
- Keep my spending under $100 for the week. (spent $30 so far)
- Get a haircut!
- Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
- Try to talk to my leadership coach. Prioritise my goals.
-
21 Apr 17.
Dehydrated again today. I thought I would overcome this today as I drank a boatload of water yesterday, but obviously not enough. I need to work on this some more, as it makes it harder to think and concentrate on things like this journal!
Yesterday was interesting, as Starcraft was released for free. Spent the afternoon reminiscing about all the old sound bytes of the units, which funny at the time, I regret now. I had a little bit of preoccupation for a while, and the only reason I think I moved beyond it so quickly is because I was so busy at work yesterday. I am thankful for that long working day, as if I was at home there would be a risk that I would want to fire it up and play a few rounds. I will have to keep an eye on this. I didn't find out from any gaming forums or sites either, it came up in my engadget feed. I really enjoy watching what engadget is up to, but if they keep doing gaming articles that I am going to read, then I need to find an alternative technology new source. Any suggestions?
Looking forward to the next 72 hours, which is really weird. Today I intend talking to my leadership coach and submitting my second discussion point online, and then the two days after that are going to be non-stop studying for my assignment due Sunday. Usually I would hate this, but I think I am excited as a way to prevent from playing games for another two days as I really don't have time to play them, and usually I would use them in my breaks, which would result in no study being done.
Days:
- Game Free: 4 (17 Apr)
- Facebook Free: 4 (17 Apr)
- Alcohol Free: 3 (18 Apr)
- Running Training: 0 (Break 19 Apr)
- Language Training: 2 (19 Apr)
Today I was grateful for:
- The long day at work, which handcuffed me from doing anyhing gaming-related, and forced me to stay focused on work. I'd rather be focused on my study, but beggars can't be choosers.
Today I learned:
- That the app I am using to stay productive and keep my mind on track - Wunderlist - is being axed by Microsoft. Devastated.
Goals completed today:
- Maintained language training, establishing my first streak for the year! Doing it at lunch time is definitely the right choice.
- Managed to start reading again. Did one chapter of Buddhism for Dummies and one chapter of Karl Pilkington's latest book.
Goals I didn't complete today:
- Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
- Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
- Call a friend or family member. Reached out to some friends to line up a phone conversation but they didn't respond.
- Did not drink enough water, did not drink 500ml as soon as I woke up.
- GTD podcast. Didn't have the opportunity to disconnect from my environment and listen to a podcast due to work.
Goals for tomorrow:
- Maintain language streak. I have 5 ingots riding on this.
- Listen to a GTD podcast. Write down the tool of the day and include it in my next journal entry in order to implement into my routine.
- Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
- Drink more water and less tea during the day!
- Call a friend or family member.
- Talk to my leadership coach.
- Submit my second discussion point.
- Create a list in my budget spreadsheet of what functions or reports I would like, which should shape my goal of inserting one per day.
GTD Tip for tomorrow:
- Go back to drinking a lot more water (again).
Goals for this week:
- Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
- Finish my fundraising page.
- Submit both my tertiary study assignments. (1/2 of first one completed!)
- Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day. (have hit a snag on the function front, consider asking gamequitters for help)
- Keep my spending under $100 for the week. (spent $30 so far)
- Get a haircut!
- Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
- Try to talk to my leadership coach.
-
Happens to the best of us :). So do you know what caused the relapse?
I was feeling really good and relaxed, which Cam totally nailed in his relapse video on a cause for relapsing. I was happy about what I had achieved during the week and how I had managed to get my streak to 22 days, combined with having 4 days off that I knew I was going to spend the majority of studying and getting back on track (which I didn't). Alcohol helped that though, so I am working on cutting that down now as well.
Getting back on track right away is key, so good job on that. Check out the new video I have with Nicholas Bayerle, I think his experience will help you a lot.
Will do! Couldn't get it to work last night, I'll try again today.
-
20 Apr 17.
Here we are, 3 days into the constant journal entries. I am not feeling great today though, which I think is because I am really dehydrated. I was feeling a little bit "off" last night, and this morning I have that hangover headache, so I obviously didn't drink enough water yesterday. It is kind of obvious though, since I did two days of big runs in a row, and I have been teaching so much that I haven't had opportunities to drink water. I haven't been following the GTD tip of drinking 500ml of water as soon as I wake up either, I did it for a few days but then stopped, even with putting in slices of lime. Time to get back on that wagon.
Made a conscious decision not to go for a run yesterday, not because I was too lazy or just cbf, but because I prioritised it out. Rather than taking of the perspective of "not enough time in the day" which I used to take, I am trying to take the mindset of there is 24 hours in the day, I just need to prioritise what is important enough to get completed. Knowing that today is a 14 hour work day for me, and that my study situation is reaching crisis point, I decided to spend all of last night after work studying. It was somewhat successful, as I managed to submit my first discussion point for this week, I have one more discussion point to do tomorrow, and then my assignment is due Sunday. I am quite thankful for this journey right now, as if I was gaming on top of this in my "breaks" (a 10 minute break usually turns into a 2 hour break because I just have to finish the level....) would have either made this impossible, or rushed. I am starting to get very interested in the content of this subject, which I found initially as overwhelming due to being an entirely new topic.
Tried to think of something else I could do on my self improvement journey that I could substitute the running for, and all the discussions of Duolingo came to mind. So I fired it up in my lunch break and powered through a couple of lessons, probably the first time in six months or more. I think I have opened the Duolingo app for the first time on my new phone, which I bought in about Octoberish last year. It's just been sitting there staring at me from my home screen for that long. Anyway, I was quite surprised how much I remembered. I had to start at the basics level because all the bars were empty (no surprise there), and within 2 attempts at the assessment I was at 100%. Not bad! That bagged me 20 xp, and that was the extent of my motivation for it. I am amazed that Schwing and the team smash out 50 xp per day, that's some serious effort. Maybe I will work up to that, but I am happy with 20 xp at the moment. I did bet 5 ingots on the 7 day streak, hopefully that will give me some motivation to keep working on it.
Did a bit of research into existentialism after Cam's tweet earlier in the week. I assumed it might have been some kind of self-improvement belief or philosophy, but it was quite full on. I don't think I am onboard with it at all, but that being said all I have done is read the wikipedia page and watched a 5 minute intro video on youtube. The tools that Buddhism has provided me on controlling my emotions (read: anger) are too valuable to deviate from.
Not entirely sure if I will allocate time to this journal over the next 4 days as I work on my studies which is quite urgent, and completely my own creation, but I will endeavour to use it as a break. I found some really good journals and/or introduction posts which are great, Egon and MegaTiny, so I look forward to tracking those as well, but I need to be careful not to spend too much time trawling the forums! I get addicted to things way too easily. I thought it might be a personality type that results in people getting addicted easily, but my Meyers-Briggs test and personality type is the total opposite of Cam's, so maybe there is no typical type.
Days:
- Game Free: 3 (17 Apr)
- Facebook Free: 3 (17 Apr)
- Alcohol Free: 2 (18 Apr)
- Running Training: 0 (Break 19 Apr)
- Language Training: 1 (19 Apr)
Today I was grateful for:
- The relapse I had last Friday. Sounds weird I know! But the relapse jolted me into my current self improvement spree which I think is going to get me across the line with my study deadlines in the next 4 days (or rather I hope that it does). I know this stress is self-created by not studying as much as I should in the preceding weeks, but the horse has bolted, now the focus is about recovering, and I am grateful for my current mindset which I can contribute to the guilt of preoccupation the day after the relapse.
Today I learned:
- The only thing I can think of is relating to my studies. I will reflect on this more today, surely there is something I have learned, but just can't think of it right now. Disappointed with this.
Goals completed today:
- Submitted discussion point #1 to the forums of my study. Really happy with the product, which is a surprise, usually I am unhappy with my study efforts.
- 3 daily entries in a row! Also have established getting up early into my routine, I am completing a lot of tasks in that extra hour in the morning just like GTD said I would. Need to stop questioning so much.
- Started language training again! Focus is to build the habit rather to go hard too early.
- Meditated in my hammock for a few minutes over lunch with a cup of tea. Need to build on this but it was very enjoyable.
Goals I didn't complete today:
- Did not hit the pool to stretch out. I did think about it, but the effort required to get to the pool and clean up afterwards I thought could be better spent on my studies, which I think it was.
- Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
- Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
Goals for tomorrow:
- Maintain language streak. The extended working day means my goal options are limited.
- Listen to a GTD podcast. Write down the tool of the day and include it in my next journal entry in order to implement into my routine.
- Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
- Drink more water and less tea during the day!
- Call a friend or family member.
GTD Tip for tomorrow:
- Go back to drinking a lot more water.
Goals for this week:
- Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
- Finish my fundraising page.
- Submit both my tertiary study assignments. (1/2 of first one completed!)
- Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day. (have hit a snag on the function front, consider asking gamequitters for help)
- Keep my spending under $100 for the week. (spent $25 so far)
- Get a haircut!
- Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
- Try to talk to my leadership coach.
-
Welcome to the forums mate! You've come to the right place. And it's good to see another Aussie here, we should start a coup
Be careful with the social gaming at your friends house, specifically the preoccupation which might follow. I tried that method as well, but then I would spend days in the lead up or afterwards just non stop thinking about the game(s) and some strategies how I could kick ass next time. So much productivity lost for a few hours of laughs.
Initially it might work, but in the long run you're probably going to want to build different hobbies with your friends or different things to talk about. You might be surprised about how wide the interests of your friends are, I know I sure was when I started declining talking about games. We walk among some seriously intelligent people who have so much to offer.
Giblet's Journal
in Daily Journals
Posted
07 May 17
Game Free: 20 (17 Apr)
Nothing new to add - spent the day over at a mate's place just unplugging from life. Was a lot of fun, but means I was not productive in any way for the weekend.