Ikar

I've been thinking about this paragraph for a while. One thing that came to my mind was to use the existing framework to get the closest to the point where you want to be. In other words, not everything is horrible and the parts that are good can help you and be to your advantage. The framework can be quite rigid, but it can still support you and help you. Over time, you'll get enough freedom to make your own decisions more and more. That freedom comes with time and dedication, some would maybe say discipline. I'm self-employed myself, so I understand your vision to do things your way in animation and writing, though I am quite on the "safe" side as an English teacher. The objective is the same though: give people what they (and you too!) want and have a good life as a result. I hope what I wrote makes sense 😄

I've been having some odd sleep in the last few days. I woke up early and couldn't fall asleep again. I haven't felt tired during the day yet, so it might really be that I sleep too much. It's just that mentally, it feels odd lying awake in bed for an hour or two, trying to sleep, and then still getting up early.

That's awesome! I think it's important to make sure to live within one's means. I also have a job that allows me to work more/less, so tracking money helps me feel confident in adjusting my workload. If you want a recommendation for an app, I've been using Wallet for years now. I started with the free version, but it has a limit of 3 money accounts, so I got lifetime premium for 30€ back in April. Premium also has automatic tracking (bank account synced with the app), but I still put in data from CSV files from my online banking, because I want to do a monthly evaluation anyway: https://budgetbakers.com/how-to-start/#first_day

28th November - 3rd December: Worked on the thesis as usual, although I stepped up the effort to 3 hours on Friday, 4 yesterday and 5 today. I'm confident I'll have everything done on time, though I need to start on the data selection and analysis Otherwise I spent time with my girlfriend, friend and attended Toastmasters again 🙂

Told my girlfriend more details about my porn problem. I explained to her how it affects me, her and our relationship.

"Everything feels like work." reminded me of @BooksandTrees and his journal. He solved something similar and I think it's even the exact phrase. My opinion: I guess the mental signal you're getting is to live a little. Life isn't only about ticking off chores and improving habits. It's not a carte blanche to stop trying and to do stupid shit, but probably a sign to slow down. I sometimes have it too, so I just sit with myself a while and reflect on the successes I've had in the last months/years and really feel them through and appreciate them. Burnout is no good.

I guess a lot of it depends on how you frame it. From the way I read it, I'd say you are goal oriented and progress from one thing to the next. That's not a bad thing. My idea after quitting games was to branch out into multiple important areas of my life and work on them consistently and with passion. Yes, sometimes I can get super passionate about a certain subject for a few months, but then it eventually passes. I haven't had my extreme highs and lows since I quit gaming, but I think the tradeoff for stability and sustainability is worth it.

Wait, am I reading it right? Are you going to be a father soon? If so, awesome! Congratulations! 😄

22nd November - 27th November: I've been working on the thesis every day since I wrote my last post, usually for two hours daily. I might step it up a little, but so far I haven't felt the need. I believe I'll have the theoretical part of it done in about a week, leaving my hands free for the practical part in December. I went to watch a hockey match with my mum yesterday. I haven't been doing anything special otherwise. There are many things I don't have time for, but I have to prioritize. No other way around it.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 25/10/23 - 22/11/23 "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. --- set smart/stretch goals - read book again Books/Reading articles: L: Finished "World Order" and started reading the book about freelancing I mentioned. It's not in English, so that's why it's nameless 🙂 T: Still on the business book, although I've been prioritizing other projects, so I didn't spend much time on it. Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. (Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report. Family: L: The kitchen plan ran into (another) problem. The working desk is a few centimeters shorter than needed, due to the fact there are unmovable drain pipes near the wall. The best solution, according to my father (and I share it), is to get a wider working desk, rather than to cut the cupboards to let the pipes through them. I met my mom for lunch about a month ago. Other than that, there's nothing special happening, except the fact that I'm going to visit my family/grandma every week until my grandma's kitchen is reconstructed. I got a new phone for my grandma, as her old one broke down. I also went for sushi with my brother (and my girlfriend), as well as for lunch with my father. I also visited my family four weekends in a row. And I can say I still don't give a flying fuck about the reconstruction of the kitchen. I'm 100% ready to give somebody the money to make this problem go away. I've tried it twice or thrice. Nothing came out of it. I'm just gonna consult my father on what to do next, as I just can't do this. T: Took my grandma and my mom to visit my grandma's sister family. The visit was OK. Went for a lunch with my father. Otherwise nothing new. NOT: I don't want to get alienated from my family. Possible direction/goals: Work on getting the new kitchen for my grandma. Continue work on maintaining the relationships with my family. University: L: Currently on 9 thousand words, although I wrote the last of them at the end of August and then I left for my holiday. This week, I resolved the email communication issues and had a consultation with my tutor. He advised me to be more specific with my topic and to send him a short summary at the weekend, so that he can insert the thesis assignment into the system. I think I'm past the negotiation/assignment stage. It feels like I have done nothing, though I put some 20 hours into it in aggregate over the past month. It's not exactly "nothing". The main slowdown was due to the fact my tutor sometimes takes days to reply. That pits me into a stage when I can excuse doing nothing until his next reply, out of fear that I'm gonna work on something that won't be relevant after his reply. Since now the thesis really is in the system, the layout is reworked (again), I'm gonna try to work on it every day from now on and I have already started today. As an interesting university side note, we hosted the first student exchange the last week and we're hosting another this week as well. It'll be the guys from Finland whom we visited in March. T: Got the outline pretty much done. I'm currently on roughly 18 thousand words, so I won't have troubles with the word count. I have until 9th January to submit it, meaning about 45 days. I'm confident that if I put 2-3 hours in every day, it'll be done, although it's hard to anticipate how much work it will take to finish the theoretical and empirical parts. I'm actually surprised by the fact that I have a lot of it done, even though I had week-long breaks in the past. My plan is to work on it every day, do at least a little bit every day, no matter how small. I shouldn't have any days away from now on, so it's doable. NOT: I don't want to drop out of the university. Possible direction/goals: Do the main part of my diploma in summer/autumn 2023 and do the defense and finals in January/February 2024. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Business/English: L: Events have really picked up pace. I had a business presentation for young students and attended a networking event. I started attending an online language lecturer academy and I can say I'm stoked. I got a Google sheets system for students running and I believe it'll improve the quality of my lessons greatly. I'm also booked for three other events in November already. I'm really funneling a lot of time into my professional development ever since I've returned from Georgia and I can say I'm enjoying it. I've been actually working (in the pure sense of lessons taught) a few hours less, but I don't mind. I have the flexibility, which is currently more important for me than pure income. T: I had a consultation with a girl who wants to teach informally in her company; a shared acquaintance told her to visit me to ask how to best do it. I haven't been feeling the best in the last few networking events. I'm not sure if there are any relevant ones for me before the year ends, but that's OK. I also lost a few courses over the past months, though again, I'm not too worried about it. I'm still making enough money to save some and I can use the time for my university studies or spend it with my girlfriend. Besides, I got two new students in the last three weeks 🙂 - An example for 19 hours this week: Category A 53% (64); B 4% (4); C 5% (0); D 5% (6); E 33% (26). 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. Look into strategies to become truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. Create a learning plan for myself. Go through "lecturer academy" materials. Write down specific areas and what I want to do in them: Networking and business events. Get a system to mark down the progress of my students, together with their learning plan. Check out business vouchers for equipment. Past projects: Questionnaire. Fixed logos on my website for better visuals. Updated the pricing section of my website. Variable/tiered pricing (do in July/August). Got minor pay raises from language schools. Did evaluations/testing of my students, if required. Attended one networking event and one marketing seminar. Introduced "phone call" classes. Update website/business profiles with "phone calls". Lecturer academy. Sample business contract on my website. Google sheets system for students. Exercise/Movement: L: Somewhat hampered, because of the issues with my foot the last week, though I can say the amount of activity I get is about the same. I also think I've been ill fairly often these months, which is definitely something I don't like. T: Cycling and walking still, though I prefer walks due to the weather. Had two hikes too. 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. Blogging: L: I haven't had time to even think about blogging with everything that was going on, although I do have a half-way written article in the works that I could publish soon. - T: - Possible direction/goals: Find a suitable UI/web template. Set up emailing for subs. Post two articles a month. Polish links in articles. Interlink new articles with old ones. Finish articles in concepts. --- 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, blogging, diploma thesis --- Additional thoughts/activities: My hobbies are: personal finance, graphs/projections/statistics, gunnery, GIS/statistics, reading/videos about (modern) history, English, working on my business, blogging/writing, geography. This month, I did these cool activities: spending time on the GQ forum, table football tournament (another!), going for lunch with my father, hosting Finnish students, organizing a team-building event for 30 people with my geographer group, attended a Toastmasters meeting, changed wheels on my car for ones with winter tires, visited the cinema, attended my girlfriend's graduation ceremony, hiked twice. My girlfriend has been stressed by the lack of activity at her new work. She's bored. She wants to do something more active. Judging from the list of activities, I'm nowhere near being bored, though I can/did share only a few of the activities above with her. My plan is to do something active at the weekend to cheer her up. --- 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. We did it! 🙂 Stop watching porn (again), stop reading too much news (again). - Got some blocks going on. The past week was clean! Start getting up when my alarm rings. - I got better, not 100%, but better. Continue: planning, walking/exercising, writing/journaling, reading, studying for uni, working on good life/work balance. It's a short list, but if I manage all of it, I will be happy.

13th November - 21st November: I didn't have much time to work on my thesis the last week, but I anticipated that. The challenge now is to get back into the rhythm of writing, which I've hopefully done today with a few necessary emails regarding the thesis. I have a bit over six weeks to submit it. The main event the last week was organizing a four day trip to a town nearby for about 30 people with a few other people from my geography group. It was quite tiring physically and socially, but I do feel recharged mentally.

I guess the emotion of hate/anger towards "what gaming did to me" is still too strong. It's not obsessing, what you're doing is thinking. Discord is "too fast" of a medium to discuss this, journaling and NA are "slow", so people usually think before they say or write something. I'd argue the guy either doesn't care or doesn't have a gaming problem at all.

It's true that I started going to these sort of events regularly just a few months ago, so the initial thrill probably wore off already. Another issue I see is that there might be some events that are not as interesting for me, but I can't tell before I'm actually there, because I started so recently. Starts are always confusing 😄 I'm normally not a shy person, but I agree completely with you that I might be just putting unneeded pressure on myself to produce "results". These things can take years to materialize into "results". All the while being a freelancer is not only about making the "results", but also having a good feeling in the process - about the job, the people involved, speaking topics and other stuff. But hey, at least I know I'm not OK with focusing only on "results" and treating people only as a means to my ends 😄

9th November - 12th November: I'm not very happy with the way I've been handling my networking meetings recently. I do my homework to prepare for them, but once I am there, I just turn apathetic and/or I just don't want to meet anyone new. I still do meet some new people, but I'm not 100% comfortable. I'm might be saturated and should cut some meetings or I perhaps need to recharge my enthusiasm. We'll see. Thesis has been going well, worked on it every day except one this week. Met my friend and my girlfriend a few times this week and went to the cinema for a new film. Later today I'm going out with my girlfriend.

Wow. It does seem like a really harsh poke. Otherwise, I can't imagine why he wouldn't at least inform you beforehand, because it doesn't matter to the audience in the end. The main issue I see here is that these things linger on the relationship; it's not only about the podcast. How are you going to approach that?

2nd Nov - 8th Nov: For the first time, I visited a local Toastmasters group to practice public speaking. I even had a short improvisation, for about a minute or so. They were very nice and I'm looking forward to visiting the event again. I've been working on my thesis and I've done good progress over the last week. The word count is at 14k words from 9k the last week. I still need to rewrite it, as they are just excerpts of documents that I've read. I still have to adjust the outline a little. I took my grandma and my mom to visit my grandma's sister and her family. My grandma was happy I took her there 🙂 I changed the wheels on my car yesterday, as the winter season is starting. I didn't want to delay it to find out one day that the snow has already fallen and I'm still on my summer tires 😄 I had a few business events the last week - meetings, networking and perhaps something I could call my first consultancy for a beginning lecturer 🙂 I have a meeting with my geography university group in the evening and after that I'm meeting my girlfriend.

I keep a list of books I've read over the last three years and threw in the ones I read even before that. It was relatively easy, as I didn't read at all at high school. I can say that the main factor in finishing it is how entertaining it is. I basically don't mind the length at this point; I read the whole Gulag Archipelago (all three volumes) which amounts to around 2000 pages. I read it for over half a year and I couldn't care less 😄 I don't think I mind complexity either (hello Nietzsche), it's just that some books take longer to digest and ponder. If I read 15 pages in 60 minutes, so be it, I'm OK with that 😄 I guess there's a good chance to recover from this issue then! One thing I got from the freelance book (currently 350/730 😄 ) is that people indeed see these blogs as passion projects, but also as future marketing tools. Once they have enough demand for their service, the interest in the project dies off. The book I'm reading is only from 2017, but as I'm currently crunching through its extensive sources, I found many personal/business blogs that were discontinued. Coming back to your situation, if you think you don't benefit enough from the podcast to justify the time expenditure, then you won't benefit no matter what anyone else says, because you're not gonna spread the word etc. The effect is mainly psychological.

I guess in times like these, it might be helpful to figure out how the relationship started and where it's at now, including the things you did and do. Say, if you've had three years of good hangouts and the podcast thing has been going for a year as well, there's surely something to come back to. If you see your friend for the last year only because of the podcast, it'll be more difficult to get it to some setting you'd prefer, because you share nothing else. I'd say that now you have some kind of "business partnership" going on (mixed with your friendship), since while he doesn't pay you, he's using your expertise in the podcast. I don't know how he can reasonably expect you to do a good/great job though, as it seems you're in this project against your will. - I have one recent story myself. My girlfriend and my best friend said they'd have English lessons with me. Their English isn't bad at all, though my best friend is leaving his work soon and having a brushed up English for the interviews might come in handy. The same was true for my girlfriend a couple of weeks ago, on top of that she is somewhat competitive. It was almost as if I had had foresight, because I plainly told them "OK, no problem. Work it out together. Just tell me when." For the next few weeks, I had to repeat it a few more times to her, because my best friend's communication with her was rather haphazard and awkward, which she often brought up when we were together. In the end, nothing came out of it. I treated them like any other professional would and I'm happy that I did. Everything is OK, I still hang out with them and I remembered this episode only because you have something similar at the moment 😄

Yeah, unfortunately for us, this is not how we work. Hobbies are something that we like to do rather than plan to do. Most of them end at just doing them. That's not to say you can't (or rather didn't) develop your hobby of writing into something bigger, but that's a vision and an aspiration for the future. We all came here because we couldn't plan our gaming.

I've been feeling a bit puzzled over the last couple of days, mainly due to the fact that I noticed I have gone from 9 private students in January, through 13 students in June, to 8 students today. I do have an initial consultation later today, so it can be 9 again 🙂 To do myself justice and to put things into perspective: it's also true that I had no job at all teaching in 2020, about 1 private student in January 2021 and 4 private students in January 2022. What's also true that I still have 6 of the 9 students that I had in January 2023. Nevertheless, I'm still surprised by the downturn/slowdown. The main question is of course to what degree I am responsible for that and to what extent it is just the expression of free will of my students to quit having lessons with me. I can't control the latter. I stepped up the effort on the former since I returned from Georgia, although there are also two sides to that: to improve the awareness of my services and to improve the quality of my service. Both are important, though the second one likely more. I can say I've been doing both for some time now. Some of my students even complimented me (beyond the standard level). I'm still aware that even though I can take positive action, the benefits of it come with a delay; much as when I got fired from the post office after I stopped gaming (although there would be a good chance of that anyway). My work can be a luxury to some, while being a necessity to others. It can actually change over the course of lessons too. I think I prefer the "necessity crowd" a bit more, as I think their motivation is better, as they have some "end goal" in mind, such as finishing the university or getting a promotion. I am going to create a learning plan for myself, as I do for my students, to make my efforts more cohesive. I think the re-evaluation of the way I view my job has already happened, so I'm going to be less surprised in the future, should this happen again. Meanwhile, I have time to pursue my own interests. I'm not in a stressful situation of not making enough money to break even, much less than to go into debt.

Thanks! I believe so too. We need to address the issue of common time now, as now she has a normal day job (6/8-14/16) and I normally work in the evenings, but we'll figure it out.

26th Oct - 1st Nov: I finished the (new) outline for the thesis and worked on some formalities of officially submitting it. Spent a few hours on it this week, but I know I'll have to spend more to finish it. I have two months to get it done. I attended my girlfriend's graduation ceremony and met her family there. She was moved, as one of her friends showed up, despite the fact that they have a complicated relationship. I'm happy to have such a smart and pretty girlfriend 😄 The second exchange with the Finnish students finished as well. We went for a hike on Saturday. It was a nice visit overall, but I told my girlfriend that I'm too old and settled to co-organize these events and perhaps to even attend them (as if on holiday). My girlfriend and I also watched the final matches of the 2023 Rugby Championship. The final was quite intense, but the team I rooted for won in the end 😄 I've been reading the entrepreneurial book and absorbed many ideas and opened many tabs in my browser, so today I decided to just go through some of them instead of reading. I need to make time to put the ideas into practice!

I guess it comes with spending years upon years of trying to be the best and never letting it rest. I'm always almost right when I say to myself that I just need to do nothing and I never regret it. If our gaming success was calculated as (time spent on task) x (intelligence), we still missed the important ingredient of multiplying it by (planning). Addicts have 0 in planning, as they have no sense of alternative. A kudos to every streamer/gamer who just eventually shrugged, scratched their head and said: "Eh, I don't have enough fun doing this." or "I don't make enough money streaming to make it worthwhile." But that's real (self)knowledge there and not just the pure ego that we had. It turns out that planning can really make a big difference; even if we do/train something for an hour a week, it's normally almost infinitely times more than the average (rather median) person, so we can be pretty decent at it. So it's OK if you've done your share of writing, drumming or lego building for the week, as the only thing really need to look after is your well-being.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 22/09/23 - 25/10/23 "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. --- set smart/stretch goals - read book again Books/Reading articles: L: I read "Be Obsessed Or Be Average" by Cardone and I got rather mixed feelings about the book. I also started reading "World Order" by Kissinger. Not caught up with my newsletters. T: Finished "World Order" and started reading the book about freelancing I mentioned. It's not in English, so that's why it's nameless 😄 Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. (Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report. Family: L: The kitchen plan ran into (another) problem. The working desk is a few centimeters shorter than needed, due to the fact there are unmovable drain pipes near the wall. The best solution, according to my father (and I share it), is to get a wider working desk, rather than to cut the cupboards to let the pipes through them. I met my mom for lunch about a month ago. Other than that, there's nothing special happening, except the fact that I'm going to visit my family/grandma every week until my grandma's kitchen is reconstructed. T: I got a new phone for my grandma, as her old one broke down. I also went for sushi with my brother (and my girlfriend), as well as for lunch with my father. I also visited my family four weekends in a row. And I can say I still don't give a flying fuck about the reconstruction of the kitchen. I'm 100% ready to give somebody the money to make this problem go away. I've tried it twice or thrice. Nothing came out of it. I'm just gonna consult my father on what to do next, as I just can't do this. NOT: I don't want to get alienated from my family. Possible direction/goals: Work on getting the new kitchen for my grandma. Continue work on maintaining the relationships with my family. University: L: Currently on nine thousand words, although I wrote the last of them at the end of August and then I left for my holiday. This week, I resolved the email communication issues and had a consultation with my tutor. He advised me to be more specific with my topic and to send him a short summary at the weekend, so that he can insert the thesis assignment into the system. T: I think I'm past the negotiation/assignment stage. It feels like I have done nothing, though I put some 20 hours into it in aggregate over the past month. It's not exactly "nothing". The main slowdown was due to the fact my tutor sometimes takes days to reply. That pits me into a stage when I can excuse doing nothing until his next reply, out of fear that I'm gonna work on something that won't be relevant after his reply. Since now the thesis really is in the system, the layout is reworked (again), I'm gonna try to work on it every day from now on and I have already started today. As an interesting university side note, we hosted the first student exchange the last week and we're hosting another this week as well. It'll be the guys from Finland whom we visited in March 🙂 NOT: I don't want to drop out of the university. Possible direction/goals: Do the main part of my diploma in summer/autumn 2023 and do the defense and finals in January/February 2024. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Business/English: L: I attended a networking event and I'm happy that I did! I also met my online students face to face while visiting their city, which was also nice 🙂 On a more practical note, I got a small pay raise from both the language schools, as well as from my students by creating a new price list. I also got an invitation to a weekly outdoor English project, however it's in a bad time slot, as I already have classes there. T: Events have really picked up pace. I had a business presentation for young students and attended a networking event. I started attending an online language lecturer academy and I can say I'm stoked. I got a Google sheets system for students running and I believe it'll improve the quality of my lessons greatly. I'm also booked for three other events in November already. I'm really funneling a lot of time into my professional development ever since I've returned from Georgia and I can say I'm enjoying it. I've been actually working (in the pure sense of lessons taught) a few hours less, but I don't mind. I have the flexibility, which is currently more important for me than pure income. - An example for 17 hours this week: Category A 64% (63); B 4% (12); C 0% (8); D 6% (4); E 26% (13). 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. Look into strategies to become truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. Write down specific areas and what I want to do in them: Networking and business events. Get a system to mark down the progress of my students, together with their learning plan. Check out business vouchers for equipment. Past projects: Questionnaire. Fixed logos on my website for better visuals. Updated the pricing section of my website. Variable/tiered pricing (do in July/August). Got minor pay raises from language schools. Did evaluations/testing of my students, if required. Attended one networking event and one marketing seminar. Introduced "phone call" classes. Update website/business profiles with "phone calls". Lecturer academy. Sample business contract on my website. Google sheets system for students. Exercise/Movement: L: We walked and hiked quite a lot with my girlfriend in Georgia. I make an effort to go out every day, to at least read a book outside or go for a short walk. Cycling/walking to my students in the area as well. T: Somewhat hampered, because of the issues with my foot the last week, though I can say the amount of activity I get is about the same. I also think I've been ill fairly often these months, which is definitely something I don't like. 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. Blogging: L: I haven't had time to even think about blogging with everything that was going on, although I do have a half-way written article in the works that I could publish soon. T: - Possible direction/goals: Find a suitable UI/web template. Set up emailing for subs. Post two articles a month. Polish links in articles. Interlink new articles with old ones. Finish articles in concepts. --- 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, blogging, diploma thesis --- Additional thoughts/activities: My hobbies are: personal finance, graphs/projections/statistics, gunnery, GIS/statistics, reading/videos about (modern) history, English, working on my business, blogging/writing, geography. This month, I did these cool activities: spending time on the GQ forum, table football tournament, going for sushi with my brother and girlfriend, going for lunch with my father, going for a trip with my girlfriend and her sister, attending a travel lecture. Past few weeks have been OK with porn. Not great, not terrible, with some progress. --- 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. We did it! 🙂 Stop watching porn (again), stop reading too much news (again). - Got some blocks going on. The past week was clean! 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.

21st October - 24th October: I've been busy. Not over the top, but busy enough. I've been meaning to start working on my monthly report, but that'll have to wait a bit. I've been hooked on the freelance book and have been reading almost every day though. I had a lunch with my girlfriend and her sister on Saturday. She seems like a decent person and a good sport. I also visited my family on Sunday. We also successfully completed the student exchange, though I can imagine it was taxing, especially for my colleagues/fellow students, as I didn't take part in the whole program. I hope I can be more involved for the second exchange in a few days, though not at the expense of shirking work, my girlfriend or anything else. I'm a bit sick today, perhaps because I haven't been wearing socks much even outside to allow my foot to recover. I even slept during the afternoon. I hope it'll be better tomorrow.