Ikar

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.

I've been wondering about that as well. I sense that the divide between my "free" week and my "work" week is still too big for my taste, so I want to allow myself more free time in general. But now, I'm gonna be more busy with university and I suspect the number of my English courses will be constant, as I drop courses for language schools and pick up more private students. Sometimes, I have a tendency to finish my day quite early, let's say at 9. I have activities to do, but in that moment I feel tired/unconcentrated and I postpone them. And if there are no activities for me to do, it makes me restless at night and triggers my masturbation habit. Reading books in my bed makes me sleepy, so I should capitalize on that. My girlfriend and a few friends know and I agree it's good to not be alone in that. That made me look at the beginning of my diary, because I don't remember what I did. I just remember feeling free after I quit. And that I did anything but gaming and Twitch. I know that before the diary, I had bouts of quitting certain games/starting certain games/watching Twitch. I learnt that my case is pretty abnormal after spending some time here, as most people don't start journaling and quit 100%.

Fair, I guess that's the normal way things develop. I have a student who works a job in automotive, but is also a DJ at nights and earns some money doing that too 🙂

6th Feb - 12th Feb: I read the "Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World". It was about how geography affects modern countries, mainly in the geopolitical sense. I spent time with friends and my girlfriend, watched films and redesigned my website. --- In other news, I am going to drop a few courses I have. I want to have more time for myself, to make space for private students and to make time for my uni classes.

I understand what you're saying about applying charisma. I meet a few new people every now and then and today I actually met my girlfriend's sister and her boyfriend for the first time. I felt zero pressure to make a good impression and so I was free to be genuinely myself. Yes, we can prepare for a job interview or for an exam at the uni (and we should), but in the end, people either like us or they don't. That's an interesting remark, as I oftentimes have problems myself with identifying how strongly I feel about certain people and what impact they have on me. That means that sometimes when I'm confronted about that by someone, I have mostly nothing to say. Anyway, do you have some benchmark(s) on how you want your relationships to be?

Sounds good! Are you planning it as a hobby or do you want to go pro eventually? I remember you writing about finding yourself some good job.

I actually had only one serious exam this semester and it was OK, though I am finding that as time progresses, I'm getting lazier with my university assignments. I worked out a plan to finish the summer semester/all subjects of my masters by June and then have until January/February 2024 to finish my thesis and do the finals. What is the plan for your studies? I understand that. I have the same issue quitting porn now. I didn't watch it for over a week a few days ago, but then I just got too excited. It's nowhere as bad as it was with gaming, but I don't want to spend a few hours a week watching porn. I also think it's somewhat unfair towards my girlfriend, so it's another good reason to stop for me. I don't exercise, but I matched my chores with physical activity. That means if I have to meet my students F2F or meet with friends, I either cycle or have to walk for at least for 30 minutes. Is there any way for you to do that as well?

You're not alone in that! I need to remind myself to keep my alarm across the room to actually get up. I haven't done that in the past few weeks.

26th Jan - 5th Feb: I've decided to put a few lines here because I am feeling somewhat bummed out and lost. To put a long story short, I was supposed to go to Georgia on Saturday morning. The flight got gradually delayed and eventually canceled that day, so it was moved to the next one. That completely ruined my plans for the vacation, as I had some time-sensitive plans for the first few days with others. I've been filing out some applications for refunds, but it's not looking great so far and I wonder if I'll get any money back at all. --- In other news, I still do have a week of vacation time I need to put to good use. That's worth more than a couple hundred of euros lost for the plane inconvenience or by not having classes this week. I can do some reading, website resigning, exercising, meeting friends, kitchen designing for my grandma, smaller trips...

As @Lobares2 pointed out, the forum is free. I come here regularly for almost four years and I haven't paid a single dime for any of the courses here. Nor are those courses billed monthly or something, so there are even no "clients" to hook permanently. If I make a living helping people by teaching English and @Cam Adair makes a living helping people by quitting games, how's that any different? As for the second question, I'm not aware of any such thing here. My opinion would be that this forum is not that big to have those meetings regularly.

21st Jan - 25th Jan: I did my monthly report and thought about the conception of my teaching schedule. I studied for the exam (I have it in two hours), spent time with my girlfriend and read about finance.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 17/12/22 - 20/01/23 "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 didn't read almost at all this last month. T: I read Free to Choose by Milton and Rose Friedman and I also watched the video series. A very catchy and interesting book. Possible direction/goals: Continue getting through the newsletters. (Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report. Family: L: My grandma's sister actually visited my grandma and I am still pondering the kitchen unit. Nothing else is happening otherwise. T: 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. 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'm not sure if I already put it out here, but 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 more to the university bucket. As far as the university currently goes, I'm actually fairly caught up on the projects as of now. The exam term comes after Christmas, but it seems like most of the study load was actually focused on the projects and that the exams will (hopefully) not be too demanding. T: 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. NOT: I don't want to drop out of the university. Possible direction/goals: Find more sources for my upcoming masters' thesis during the summer. Work on the assignments in a timely manner. Job/English: L: Maybe I've mentioned it before, but with my job position and 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. I enjoy having this option thoroughly. Classes are 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. So the business mentoring is done after three months. I brought away many ideas - honestly so many, there's work for months ahead! It's been really great and I am very happy and grateful that I was able to take part in it. I'm gonna write down specific areas and what I want to do in them. T: 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. - I've just 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 course 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 d) challenging/fun/prospective - standard LS with an added quality e) neither - standard LS courses without any added quality I have about 30% of my workload in category e), so I am going to eliminate that over time, starting next month by removing about half of them. I might outsource 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: 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. Look into strategies in becoming truly self-employed by skipping the agencies in between. Exercise/Movement: L: I enjoy the fact I do not have to be "actively" dealing with this area of my life, as it's technically part of my job. I just have to be on lookout if that was to change. I sometimes go for a walk over the weekend, as I normally don't have time to take a two hour walking/reading session during the week. Still walking and cycling regularly to see my students or when going out in the evening. Winter and snow set in, however I am still walking outside to my students, even though it's more difficult. T: Pretty much the same. There was a lot of snow the last month, but it melted about a week later, so I got on my bike again. Unfortunately my 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. NOT: I don't want to become fat. Possible direction/goals: 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, cleaning, washing the dishes, business ideas, uni work, blogging Replacement activities for 2 hours: going to the gym, going for a walk ----- 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 two-week vacation, going to the a debate, reading about finance, spending time with friends, writing my yearly report, going to sushi with my brother. --- Goals/resolutions 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. Resolutions for 2023: 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 very 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. There are tentative plans to meet the Georgian girl again in a few months. I'd like to combine it together with some Erasmus+ project as well. I'm going to visit Georgia on 4th February and return on 14th 🙂 I've been doing this for three years! I'm gonna do some large-scale comparison of annual report of 2020x2021x2022 and planning for the 2023x2024x2025. Should be fun! - DONE 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.