Ikar

I'm currently going through the uni myself and I can say the reasons why I was/am there changed over time. Back in 2016-2018, I just viewed it as something I should do and I think that's also why I dropped out of one. A big factor was that basically all of my immediate family has a university title, though a bit of that still remains there until today. After I quit games in 2019, it was a good way to fill time and I learnt some time-management skills in general. I finished bachelor in 2021. Before starting my master, I knew it was a calculated risk, as I knew I could have a well-paid full time job if I wanted to back in 2021. But it still made economical and social sense for me to go to master. I've managed my study responsibilities fairly easily in the past two years and all I need to do now is to write the thesis and do final exams in January. Therefore, I believe it's natural that one thing leads to another and that reasons and motivations change over time. I'm sure you'll adapt and continue without many problems even after some of your teammates leave. I think the mindset of "forever" job is there because kids, teenagers and young adults don't really have much agency to make their own choices, because their parents or school didn't teach them that. It's always "You have to go to elementary school." "You have to go to high school." etc. and it's hard to break the cycle. 100% on not committing too early and exploring different options. It takes time and some trial-and-error to make quality decisions. Having good grades at the university is akin to kissing a girlfriend in a relationship. Is it important? Yes. Is it all there is to it? No. Extracurriculars give you nice hobbies, contacts, options for friendships, jobs and other things that can be useful later in life. Very few people actually care about excellent grades themselves after uni, as long as you have the title. Grades are really mostly a substitute for specific successes with specific rewards in real life. I hope the post was useful to you in some way 🙂

Over the years, I have followed many journals and I believe Books has followed even more. I think Cam's idea of following three journals is sound to create some self-sustaining ecosystem, but only if they are active journals. I'd consider someone "active" if they have been here in the past month (that'd be me 🙂 ) or have a history of periodically returning over longer time periods (that'd be Books). The matter of fact is that 98% of people stop writing here because they relapse, quit games using a different technique or just aren't interested in journaling. I am here because I am interested in journaling. Sometimes I get a comment and the UI is convenient, so I keep on doing it here at GQ. A thread on Reddit might be faster, but I'd argue the conversation would be more superficial than here. It's all about your preference. I agree, it's important to do what works for you. I normally about five posts a month on current events and then a monthly report with the areas of my life. It helps me track the progress, devise ways to improve and appreciate the journey in the long run. Yeah, it takes time to create posts like these. I started reading related comments, thinking, writing and an has hour passed and I haven't even seen anything older than the 5th May post by @LordFederickRamsay. Don't spend this amount of energy on a journal of a guy who left the forum two years ago, have mercy with yourself. --- @Zoe What a cute cat! 😄 I'd recommend not editing older posts, unless you think it's impossible to share the information anymore. It makes it easier to follow the journal for others, as nobody will go through older posts just to see if you changed something, nor there are any obvious notifications in case you do. Journal soon! 🙂

There are always a few things to improve, but overall I've been feeling great. I'm quite excited about what the future holds, but I am also happy with what I already have, just glancing through my recent monthly reports. I hope you've been experiencing the same!

3rd May - 7th May: Worked on business mentoring, had my last university class and did some minor stuff. Went for a weekend with my girlfriend to the nature and to a different town. Had a good time overall and I'm happy and grateful 🙂

I feel you. I remember the immediate fallout of games even after quitting. About a week after quitting, I got fired from my post office job. It was just unavoidable and even though I didn't care about it much, it wasn't encouraging. Some stuff will just drag on regardless of what you do now. As for porn, I feel better the last few weeks or months as well, basically since I got my girlfriend. I watch it a few times a month too. I'd say I am curious about it rather than addicted to it at this point.

23rd April - 2nd May: I finished some schoolwork and passed the first uni exam. This weekend I picnicked with my friends, visited my family and went cycling with my girlfriend. Watched some good movies as well and met up with a guy I haven't seen in six months 🙂

15th April - 22nd April: I spent a good part of the last weekend with my girlfriend. I also wrote my monthly report, did some school preparation. On Monday, one of my friends and I won the table football tournament that we have at the dorm. It felt very good! 😄 I met my girlfriend on a few occasions during the week. I also had meetings with two new students, both of whom decided to have English lessons once a week. I visited a guest lecture at the uni and also had business mentoring. My friend celebrated birthday on Friday, so he invited me as well. Yesterday I met my girlfriend and worked on uni projects.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 14/03/23 - 15/04/23 "L" will stand for the (last) plan/notes for this term. "T" will stand for done this term. I added "Future goals/direction" to better reflect on the things I am trying to do and to add specificity. I will copy it and stick it somewhere where I can see it to remind myself whenever I feel aimless. I will also use different colors: blue for newly added goals/habits, green for completed/successful, orange for ongoing/some progress and red for ones I haven't worked on in that period. First off, I've been looking forward to writing this and having the time to do so. I like this habit of mine 🙂 --- Books/Reading articles: L: No books, just some newsletters, although I've just borrowed Idiot by Dostoevsky. T: Currently reading Idiot by Dostoevsky, although not very regularly. Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. (Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report. Family: L: Mom's gonna be intermittently in and out of the hospital possibly forever. Our uncle came to visit us with my cousin. I'm working on getting my grandma the new kitchen. I also "inherited" my father's old car as he got a new one. I'm happy and grateful for that and I hope it will serve me for a long time. T: I've been spending more time with my family than planned this month. I'm one step behind on the kitchen plan, however I will make some progress on it over the weekend and ask my father about some technical details of the purchase. NOT: I don't want to get alienated from my family. Possible direction/goals: Work on getting the new kitchen for my grandma. Continue working on bettering the relationships with my family. University: L: The university has been taking up around 13 hours a week in total as I predicted. I'm gonna go for a trip to Finland with a few of my classmates. T: The trip was nice and the projects are still ongoing. NOT: I don't want to drop out of the university. Possible direction/goals: Do the main part of my diploma in summer 2023 and do the defense and finals in January/February 2024. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Job/English: L: I got a few more private students/courses this month, the total should be around 3,5 hours a week more. Language school 1 told me they can only increase my wage from September after negotiating a new contract, so we'll see if I am there long enough to see it. Language school 2 increased my wage right away last year without a problem and if they couldn't go into loss with some courses, they promised (and raised it) a few months later. T: I went to the career festival. I didn't really get any deals done which was the primary point of my visit, however I think it was still a good idea to go, meet some friends and acquaint with others. I started a new mentoring program yesterday, so I am pretty excited. I hope to get some good ideas for my business and make new connections. - Classes are at a stable 25-30 hours a week, plus a few hours for admin work. Example for 31 hours next week: Category A 53% (55); B 11% (12); C 7% (0); D 10% (11); E 19% (22). On top of that, two first meetings for new students. Brackets are values from previous month. - I've done a bit of an analysis of my courses and categorized them based on what they provide me. I earmarked five types of courses: a) my own - well paid + generally more motivated students (as they pay the courses themselves) + more challenging b) premium - language school courses paid at a premium compared to my standard LS courses for various reasons (roughly matching the a) group) c) flexible - courses from LS that don't have a fixed schedule, meaning it's on me if I make time for them or not (though I mostly do, as can they plug the gaps or can start my day) d) challenging/fun/prospective - standard LS courses with an added quality e) neither - standard LS courses without any added quality - NOT: I don't want to have a job that I don't enjoy. I don't want to have a job that is not well paid. Possible direction/goals: With my job position and student demand secure, I'm more able and willing to reschedule or even cancel classes in case I want to do something, mainly in the evening and for holidays. I enjoy having this option thoroughly. Keep classes at a stable 25-30 hours a week. Keep asking for reviews or recommendations from students. Write down specific areas and what I want to do in them: Networking events. Work on the new mentoring project. Variable pricing. Look into strategies to become truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. Get a system to mark down the progress of my students, together with their learning plan. Past projects: Update my website to reflect the new ideas and inspiration from the web. Get a customized redesign and SEO for the website. Networking events. = Attended networking event on 5th April. Work on Linked In - use the notes from seminar. Exercise/Movement: L: I got the bike back from the service. We've been going for walks with my girlfriend fairly often and on Sunday we are planning to go to the swimming pool. T: About the same. Went for a bike trip with my girlfriend. NOT: I don't want to become fat. Possible direction/goals: I enjoy the fact I do not have to be "actively" dealing with this area of my life, as it's technically a part of my job. I just have to be on lookout if that was to change. Keep in shape. Women/Dating: L: T: We've been seeing over the weekends mostly for an afternoon/evening. It is good 🙂 Possible direction/goals: Set up at least two dates a month (with my girlfriend). ----- What to do if I am bored? Replacement activities for 1 hour: reading books, cleaning, washing the dishes, reading newsletters Replacement activities for 2 hours: going for a walk, work on my business, uni work, blogging ----- Additional thoughts/activities: My hobbies are: personal finance, gunnery, GIS/statistics, reading/videos about (modern) history, English, working on my business, blogging/writing, geography. This month, I did these cool activities: working on my business, business mentoring, reading about finance, spending time with friends and my girlfriend, going to a career festival and cinema, kitchen planning for my grandma, watching a series about people in debt and their solutions, setting up web-hosting for my blog, going to Finland. --- Goals/resolutions/aspirations for 2023: Pass all the exams at the uni, finish the thesis and finish all university duties successfully in January/February 2024. - WIP, progress = yes Improve my business, so that I don't need to teach for language schools anymore, by getting more private contacts, opportunities and students. - WIP, progress = yes Go to Georgia to visit my friend. - Unfortunately, the plan didn't work out. I plan to go there later this year, either in late summer or autumn. Stop watching porn (again). - I am not porn-free, it comes in waves. I'll try to be more aware when the urges come and what makes me more likely to have them. This month (March) I had a good run without porn and too much news 🙂 Start getting up when my alarm rings. - I got better, not 100%, but better. Continue: planning, walking/exercising, writing/journaling, reading, studying for uni, dating, work on good life/work balance. It's a short list, but if I manage all of it, I will be happy. --- Add-ons: I enjoy writing articles, however I am not enjoying the process of how to actually set up the blog, whether I should try and make some money off of it. I think I will, but I won't go on writing e-books, providing courses and whatnot. Just a few affiliate links for the services I like. This allows me to focus on writing and not fret over something I don't even know I want to do. I found out I quite like to give presentations, if I really believe and enjoy the topic. This goes for both my school and business presentations. Better keep that in mind.

10th Apr - 14th Apr: I visited my friend after appendix surgery together with my girlfriend at the hospital. I spent some time working on school projects, at school, teaching English and with friends.

It seems like great news overall! Congratulations on all of your achievements, especially on the marriage. It's plain to see from your diary that you have made a lot of progress in your life over the years. I'm happy I could be a part of that for a few years too. I'm horrible at planning any physical exercise as well, so I just planned it into my work calendar by visiting students in the city on bike or on foot. My girlfriend is very sporty too, so it helps me drag myself outside and do something together. Be well!

2nd April - 9th April: I visited my family both weekends and we went went to the cinema to watch the newest John Wick film. I met up with the Spanish girl (she was here with her scouts' group as a leader), went to a career festival, had a business meeting in a business accelerator and worked on a field project for my university.

25th Mar - 1st April: I spent time with my girlfriend and I have been reading Idiot by Dostoevsky. I went to Finland for a few days with my geography group and overall had a good time. Today I've been catching up on errands that accumulated during my week of absence and planning for the next one. I set up a networking meeting and I'm going to a career festival the next week as well.

20th Mar - 24th Mar: I've had a cold for the past week, I probably caught it on the bike trip with my girlfriend. I met with my friends a few times while keeping warm, although I do feel somewhat tired. I've been working on the financial blog and I'm going to make my first post soon.

I used to follow Peterson closely for about a year or two after I quit games in April 2019. I'm not as active as I used to be around here, but guys around the forum and I mentioned his videos/writing/advice quite often in our diaries. Mind you his content then was more in line with "Peterson the psychologist" line, rather than "Peterson the public commentator" he branded himself into after 2020-2021. You quitting games is a bigger deal than what Cam Adair thinks about Jordan Peterson anyway, so welcome onboard 🙂

16th Mar - 19th Mar: I wrote my monthly report, went to the doctor, visited my family, had classes with new students, met with friends and played board-games and billiard with them, worked on the kitchen layout for my grandma, worked on some uni projects, went for a bike trip with my girlfriend and watched "Enemy of the State".

I'm using the template I used the last time. 18/02/23 - 16/03/23 "L" will stand for the (last) plan/notes for this term. "T" will stand for done this term. I added "Future goals/direction" to better reflect on the things I am trying to do and to add specificity. I will copy it and stick it somewhere where I can see it to remind myself whenever I feel aimless. I will also use different colors: blue for newly added goals/habits, green for completed/successful, orange for ongoing/some progress and red for ones I haven't worked on in that period. First off, I've been looking forward to writing this and having the time to do so. I like this habit of mine 🙂 --- Books/Reading articles: L: I read Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World. It was a nice book from my field, recommended by my girlfriend. Fairly caught up on the newsletters. T: No books, just some newsletters, although I've just borrowed Idiot by Dostoevsky. Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. (Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report. Family: L: I went to lunches with my brother and my dad. I still can't get myself to care about the kitchen. I guess the time shall come. T: Mom's gonna be intermittently in and out of the hospital possibly forever. Our uncle came to visit us with my cousin. I'm working on getting my grandma the new kitchen. I also "inherited" my father's old car as he got a new one. I'm happy and grateful for that and I hope it will serve me for a long time. NOT: I don't want to get alienated from my family. Possible direction/goals: Work on getting the new kitchen for my grandma. Continue working on bettering the relationships with my family. University: L: I finished the exam at the end of January. The university started again this week. I expect I will spend about 8 hours a week present on classes and another 5 hours a week working on the assignments. T: The university has been taking up around 13 hours a week in total as I predicted. I'm gonna go for a trip to Finland with a few of my classmates. NOT: I don't want to drop out of the university. Possible direction/goals: Do the main part of my diploma in summer 2023 and do the defense and finals in January/February 2024. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Job/English: L: I went to a small business conference, although I quickly found out that a) my acquaintances hadn't arrived and b) the topic of the conference wasn't useful for me. I actually redesigned my website and did the SEO on my own in the free time I had by not going to Georgia and still having a week off. T: I got a few more private students/courses this month, the total should be around 3,5 hours a week more. Language school 1 told me they can only increase my wage from September after negotiating a new contract, so we'll see if I am there long enough to see it. Language school 2 increased my wage right away last year without a problem and if they couldn't go into loss with some courses, they promised (and raised it) a few months later. - Classes are at a stable 25-30 hours a week, plus a few hours for admin work. Example for 28 hours next week: Category A 55%; B 12%; C 0%; D 11%; E 22%. - I've done a bit of an analysis of my courses and categorized them based on what they provide me. I earmarked five types of courses: a) my own - well paid + generally more motivated students (as they pay the courses themselves) + more challenging b) premium - language school courses paid at a premium compared to my standard LS courses for various reasons (roughly matching the a) group) c) flexible - courses from LS that don't have a fixed schedule, meaning it's on me if I make time for them or not (though I mostly do, as can they plug the gaps or can start my day) d) challenging/fun/prospective - standard LS courses with an added quality e) neither - standard LS courses without any added quality - NOT: I don't want to have a job that I don't enjoy. I don't want to have a job that is not well paid. Possible direction/goals: With my job position and student demand secure, I'm more able and willing to reschedule or even cancel classes in case I want to do something, mainly in the evening and for holidays. I enjoy having this option thoroughly. Keep classes at a stable 25-30 hours a week. I'm likely going to outsource a few of the projects, such as the modern re-design of my website, SEO and perhaps some more advanced marketing stuff. My students have also been helpful as far as this goes. I have many upcoming projects in the pipeline. Keep asking for reviews or recommendations from students. Write down specific areas and what I want to do in them: Update my website to reflect the new ideas and inspiration from the web. Get a customized redesign and SEO for the website. Networking events. = Attend networking event on 5th April. Variable pricing. Work on Linked In - use the notes from seminar. Look into strategies in becoming truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. Exercise/Movement: L: I got the bike back from the service. We've been going for walks with my girlfriend fairly often and on Sunday we are planning to go to the swimming pool. T: About the same. NOT: I don't want to become fat. Possible direction/goals: I enjoy the fact I do not have to be "actively" dealing with this area of my life, as it's technically a part of my job. I just have to be on lookout if that was to change. Keep in shape. Women/Dating: L: T: We've been seeing over the weekends mostly for an afternoon/evening. It is good 🙂 Possible direction/goals: Set up at least two dates a month (with my girlfriend). ----- What to do if I am bored? Replacement activities for 1 hour: reading books, cleaning, washing the dishes, reading newsletters Replacement activities for 2 hours: going for a walk, work on my business, uni work, blogging ----- Additional thoughts/activities: My hobbies are: personal finance, gunnery, GIS/statistics, reading/videos about (modern) history, English, working on my business, blogging/writing, geography. This month, I did these cool activities: working on my business, going to see a ball, reading about finance, spending time with friends and my girlfriend, seeing my uncle, going to the swimming pool, going to a book festival and cinema. --- Goals/resolutions/aspirations for 2023: Pass all the exams at the uni, finish the thesis and finish all university duties successfully in January/February 2024. - WIP, progress = yes Improve my business, so that I don't need to teach for language schools anymore, by getting more private contacts, opportunities and students. - WIP, progress = yes Go to Georgia to visit my friend. - Unfortunately, the plan didn't work out. I plan to go there later this year, either in late summer or autumn. Stop watching porn (again). - I am not porn-free, it comes in waves. I'll try to be more aware when the urges come and what makes me more likely to have them. This month (March) I had a good run without porn and too much news 🙂 Start getting up when my alarm rings. - I got better, not 100%, but better. Continue: planning, walking/exercising, writing/journaling, reading, studying for uni, dating, work on good life/work balance. It's a short list, but if I manage all of it, I will be happy. --- Add-ons: I enjoy writing articles, however I am not enjoying the process of how to actually set up the blog, whether I should try and make some money off of it. I think I will, but I won't go on writing e-books, providing courses and whatnot. Just a few affiliate links for the services I like. This allows me to focus on writing and not fret over something I don't even know I want to do. I found out I quite like to give presentations, if I really believe and enjoy the topic. This goes for both my school and business presentations. Better keep that in mind.

10th March - 16th March: Met with some friends, my girlfriend, worked on some uni assignments, took the car to the service.

3rd Mar - 9th Mar: I've been busy with university work whenever I have 2+ hours free time in my schedule. I don't like to plan it into shorter time spans, as I can't ramp up my focus just for an hour and I don't like to work under limited time pressure. Smaller chunks of time are more problematic to deal with effectively. At the weekend, my girlfriend and I went to a book festival, but mostly we went there for the seminars and debates. I have a new car (my dad's old car) as of Monday and I went to the scheduled service check with it on Tuesday. I've been fairly social this week in the evenings and I am thinking of getting my finance blog off the ground (again).

Nope, it's still just a part of my English business that I might want to focus on sometimes at some networking events. Yes, I think it's very good that I find time to write here about once a week and keep disciplined with monthly reports to see how I am doing. I'm thinking about doing (half)year reports too, to see if I am on track strategically as well.

24th Feb - 2nd Mar: I updated my LinkedIn profile on Friday and a day later got an offer there to teach English. Funny how that works 😄 At the weekend, I spent Saturday with my family. My uncle came after a year or two, so it was nice to meet him and one of his daughters. On Sunday, I worked on some uni projects and spent time with my girlfriend. During this week, I had my regular English and uni classes. I also did my taxes for 2022. I wrote one of the language schools to increase my salary. I don't have any regular meetings with their representatives, so I just send them a mail every couple of months to see if they have anything to spare. I don't have any inflation adjustment in the contract and, likely due to the inept policy of our national bank, we had around 20% inflation the past year. I keep in mind that the best long-term strategy is to have my own students and set my own prices. However, in the meantime I can do some balancing by dropping a few courses for language schools and still asking for higher pay. We'll see what they write. --- From Mark Manson's Breakthrough newsletter: Two things for you to ask yourself What have you been avoiding through over-planning or telling yourself that you’re not ready yet? What would you lose by simply starting anyway? If the answer is “not much,” then guess what? Start anyway. Recommended: Use these as journaling prompts for the week. --- Since October, the project of my grandma's kitchen has been my responsibility. Some progress has been made, however I know that half a year is just too big of a time-frame to justify. I'm gonna lay out the plan: Weekend of 11th/12th March: Ask my grandma to give me a "free hand" in the reconstruction of the kitchen. She was hesitant regarding the scope of the reconstruction, which made me hesitant in turn, because I didn't know what to do. I want to convince her that she has nothing to worry about and that the whole operation will be fast. Weeks 11 and 12: Consult my father and brother as to the design of the kitchen and use the IKEA kitchen planner to help me out. Show my grandma the plan for the kitchen at the end of week 12 and get a green light. Weeks 13 and 14: Go to IKEA to get the furniture and other shops for linoleum and other smaller stuff. There's no need for new electronic appliances, so there's no need to get involved with electrical thingies. Transport the furniture to my grandma's flat. Weeks 14 and 15: Plan a weekend with my father/brother to help out with the reconstruction. Removing old furniture, a bit of demolition, painting, laying the new linoleum, putting in the new furniture. Get it done well and ASAP. --- And with this plan, my grandma should have a new kitchen at the end of April 🙂

Yes, that's my goal. I have regular sex with my girlfriend as well. No news or porn this past week. So far, so good 🙂

Good job!

18th Feb - 23rd Feb: I did some minor improvements to my website, spent time with my girlfriend and friends, read newsletters and went to uni classes first time this semester. --- I don't think I've been doing a good job looking after myself recently. I have to watch my phone usage, as I scroll news and watch porn on it. I want to use my time in a better way with healthier activities.

In the case of overwork, I calm myself down, relax, set priorities and continue. Usually, there are not that many urgent things coming up that I would completely forget about. That means I am mostly able to organize my schedule effectively and do something when it needs to be done without stress. In the case of underwork, I remember my hobbies, habits I want to practice and projects that don't have much priority. Both happen rarely, but I sometimes bump into both the "overworked" zone, as well as the "underworked" zone. 95% of the time I feel neither though. I use Google Calendar for my work/uni (it's pretty much necessary), as well as tasks/ideas/projects to work on when I have more time. As for how much time I put into what activity, I rely on my gut. I don't think there's a better way than that and I haven't heard anyone telling me I should do less/more of X/Y/Z (except myself, of course).

I'm using the template I used the last time. 21/01/23 - 18/02/23 "L" will stand for the (last) plan/notes for this term. "T" will stand for done this term. I added "Future goals/direction" to better reflect on the things I am trying to do and to add specificity. I will copy it and stick it somewhere where I can see it to remind myself whenever I feel aimless. I will also use different colors: blue for newly added goals/habits, green for completed/successful, orange for ongoing/some progress and red for ones I haven't worked on in that period. --- Books/Reading articles: L: I read Free to Choose by Milton and Rose Friedman and I also watched the video series. A very catchy and interesting book. T: I read Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World. It was a nice book from my field, recommended by my girlfriend. Fairly caught up on the newsletters. Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. (Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report. Family: L: The kitchen unit design is still on me. It just feels like too much work and something I can't care about, so I don't really know when will I get down to it. I went to sushi with my brother on Monday and my mom is on a rehabilitation again. T: I went to lunches with my brother and my dad. I still can't get myself to care about the kitchen. I guess the time shall come. NOT: I don't want to get alienated from my family. Possible direction/goals: Continue working on bettering the relationships with my family. University: L: I finished all the projects and smaller exams successfully. I have one more exam on Thursday and today I'm going to study for it. T: I finished the exam at the end of January. The university started again this week. I expect I will spend about 8 hours a week present on classes and another 5 hours a week working on the assignments. NOT: I don't want to drop out of the university. Possible direction/goals: My plan for some time has been to do the main part of my diploma in summer 2023 and to do the defense and finals in January/February 2024. With my university duties taking 10-15 hours a week and English teaching taking 25-30 hours a week, on top of other activities like the business mentoring, social meetings and one-off things, the last thing I want is to add too much to the university bucket. Find more sources for my upcoming masters' thesis during the summer. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Job/English: L: I've been working on the re-design and re-writing of my website and I am planning to make some progress this weekend. I got some good ideas from the meeting at the beginning of the month. T: I went to a small business conference, although I quickly found out that a) my acquaintances hadn't arrived and b) the topic of the conference wasn't useful for me. I actually redesigned my website and did the SEO on my own in the free time I had by not going to Georgia and still having a week off. - Classes are at a stable 25-30 hours a week, plus a few hours for admin work. I even canceled 5 hours throughout the last month: 3,5 from category e) and 1,5 from category d). At the same time, I picked up 4 hours for category a) since the New Year. Anywhere between 1-3 for a) are in the pipeline coming in the next few weeks. - I've done a bit of an analysis of my courses and categorized them based on what they provide me. I earmarked five types of courses: a) my own - well paid + generally more motivated students (as they pay the courses themselves) + more challenging b) premium - language school courses paid at a premium compared to my standard LS courses for various reasons (roughly matching the a) group) c) flexible - courses from LS that don't have a fixed schedule, meaning it's on me if I make time for them or not (though I mostly do, as they plug the gaps or can start my day) d) challenging/fun/prospective - standard LS courses with an added quality e) neither - standard LS courses without any added quality I have about 30% 20% (a month later) of my workload in category e), so I am going to eliminate that that time, starting next month by removing about half of them. I might transfer them to my former Georgian girlfriend if she's interested. - NOT: I don't want to have a job that I don't enjoy. I don't want to have a job that is not well paid. Possible direction/goals: With my job position and student demand secure, I'm more able and willing to reschedule or even cancel classes in case I want to do something, mainly in the evening and for holidays. I enjoy having this option thoroughly. Keep classes at a stable 25-30 hours a week. I'm likely going to outsource a few of the projects, such as the modern re-design of my website, SEO and perhaps some more advanced marketing stuff. My students have also been helpful as far as this goes. I have many upcoming projects in the pipeline. Keep asking for reviews or recommendations from students. Write down specific areas and what I want to do in them: Update my website to reflect the new ideas and inspiration from the web. Get a customized redesign and SEO for the website. Networking events. Variable pricing. Work on Linked In - use the notes from seminar. Look into strategies in becoming truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. Exercise/Movement: L: Still walking and cycling regularly to see my students or when going out in the evening. Unfortunately, my bike chain broke and overall my bike needed to be put into the service. Luckily, I live in walk-able distances to my students, so it doesn't matter that much. T: I got the bike back from the service. We've been going for walks with my girlfriend fairly often and on Sunday we are planning to go to the swimming pool 🙂 NOT: I don't want to become fat. Possible direction/goals: I enjoy the fact I do not have to be "actively" dealing with this area of my life, as it's technically a part of my job. I just have to be on lookout if that was to change. Keep in shape. Women/Dating: L: T: We've been seeing over the weekends mostly for an afternoon/evening. It is good 🙂 Possible direction/goals: Set up at least two dates a month (with my girlfriend). ----- What to do if I am bored? Replacement activities for 1 hour: reading books, cleaning, washing the dishes, reading newsletters Replacement activities for 2 hours: going for a walk, work on my business, uni work, blogging ----- Additional thoughts/activities: My hobbies are: personal finance, gunnery, GIS/statistics, reading/videos about (modern) history, English, working on my business, blogging/writing, geography. This month, I did these cool activities: working on my business, taking a vacation, going to see a presentation about Iran, reading about finance, spending time with friends and my girlfriend, going to sushi with my brother, lunch with my father, going to a business conference. --- Goals/resolutions/aspirations for 2023: Pass all the exams at the uni, finish the thesis and finish all university duties successfully in January/February 2024. - WIP, progress = yes Improve my business, so that I don't need to teach for language schools anymore, by getting more private contacts, opportunities and students. - WIP, progress = yes Go to Georgia to visit my friend. - Unfortunately, the plan didn't work out. I plan to go there later this year, either in late summer or autumn. Stop watching porn (again). - I am not porn-free, it comes in waves. I'll try to be more aware when the urges come and what makes me more likely to have them. Start getting up when my alarm rings. - I got better, not 100%, but better. Continue: planning, walking/exercising, writing/journaling, reading, studying for uni, dating. It's a short list, but if I manage all of it, I will be happy. --- Add-ons: I enjoy writing articles, however I am not enjoying the process of how to actually set up the blog, whether I should try and make some money off of it. I think I will, but I won't go on writing e-books, providing courses and whatnot. Just a few affiliate links for the services I like. This allows me to focus on writing and not fret over something I don't even know I want to do. I found out I quite like to give presentations, if I really believe and enjoy the topic. This goes for both my school and business presentations. Better keep that in mind. As I mentioned in @Faroe Islander 's journal, I sense that the divide between my "free" week and my "work" week too big for my taste, so I want to allow myself more free time in general, although now, I'm gonna be more busy with university and my normal English course-load.