Ikar

12th January - 16th January: I studied for my finals. The last two days I've been to the university study room and the environment helped me greatly. At home there's always something more interesting/urgent to distract me at the computer and I can't afford that with only two weeks to study. I also slept at my girlfriend's place in the last couple of days as I have troubles sleeping at my own place. I don't know why that is and I don't feel tired afterwards, it's mostly just the strange feeling that I spend time trying to fall asleep again. I went to a trip to another city with my geography group on Sunday. It was nice to change the environment and I liked it. Spent some time with my girlfriend and my students as usual.

Ah, I remember those feelings! It's been nearly five years since I've stopped, but unwillingness to change, wanting to control the outcome and know-all arrogance are something I had to deal with too. Honestly, I have to deal with them even today, though likely much less. I have a job where I need to focus 45-90 minutes at a time, rarely with a break or a brief zone out during it. I'd say that part of the reason why my students pay me is because I pay attention to them. I remember one of them saying that was unhappy when his previous lecturer played with his phone during the lesson. He said that he was good otherwise, but that he couldn't deal with the lecturer using his attention somewhere else during their time. Finally, don't worry about relapsing too much, progress is not always linear. You're back here and that's what counts 🙂

I have "Leech Block" in my Firefox, but thanks for the suggestion! I have perma-blocked FB on my desktop computer and I only use it on my phone to track said groups. I don't even have the app, I just use it in my phone browser. On my desktop, I need to "allow" YT every 30 minutes if I'm actively searching for something or when I want to access the main page, but at the same time I set it up so that I can use it to listen to songs/playlists unhindered.

9th January - 11th January: So, this is the entry when after three months of writing "I worked on my thesis" I'm writing "I studied for my finals" instead 😄 I went to a hockey match with my girlfriend on Tuesday. I fell somewhat ill on Wednesday, but started to feel better in the evening. Today I luckily feel well 🙂 I met a new student on Tuesday and today. I get a good vibe from both of them, but only time will tell if they're happy with my services.

Sounds good! I would've thrown FB away myself, though I have some work-related groups with interesting content. How do you use YT?

It just shows how important social groups are. Spending a lot of money on fast food is not good, but at least it didn't ruin you. Hanging out with alcoholics would be worse. Your social groups will evolve over time and you'll be more selective depending on your priorities. Does it need to be a university job? Before I started teaching English, I worked several jobs, even if for a few days. The career services will help you, but it's also helpful to use your social network to know what's on the market. A lot of topics (if not the majority) are actually boring. Nobody is going to try and seriously try to disprove the fact that water (normally) boils at 100°C or that the planets orbit around the Sun. Emotional topics are the ones where different people put different emphasis on different things. Take the Middle Eastern conflict. Do you want to evaluate it historically? How far do you want to go? 10 years? 100? 1000? Will you compare the number of people killed? Who supports whom? Or did you form your opinion based on what your friends/parents say? It's not necessarily always a conflict of information (and ideally facts), but also a conflict of priorities and there are no clear winners.

One of my English students told me that he studies every day and takes a few days break every month or so. Sometimes it's OK to just skip a day or to do something easier (not a workout but a walk around the block for example). I couldn't take sitting for hours on end watching series or documentaries or whatever. It's just incredibly passive and I feel like a giant sloth. I watch one streamer, but I also had an internal fight myself about it. He originally made videos on YT, but then he swapped to streaming. He usually streams for two hours Monday-Friday and sometimes I have to work during the time anyway, so I can't watch. I hardly ever watch the two hour recording afterwards, because his reactions to (my) comments or of the other chat members between one another in real time are a big pull for me. He's been on Christmas holidays for the last two three weeks or so and I don't crave his streams, so I know it's within my own limits. Good liquor generally makes for a good gift. Unless you have dozens of bottles (or a few exceptionally expensive ones), I think giving out a bottle here and there or using them for cocktails for your friends is better than selling them 😄

3rd January - 8th January: The last few days have been fairly standard. I spent time with my girlfriend, started my English lessons after Christmas and visited my family at the weekend. I also went to the sauna and sent out the questionnaire for my students. Today is a special day as I handed in my thesis electronically. In a while, I'm going with my brother for sushi to enjoy the rest of the day 😄

You also write, that should be on your hobby list too! I also have a bunch of discarded hobbies: going to the gym (later Brazilian jiu jitsu, now I just go for walks), drumming, learning new languages, partying well into the night (lol), reading a lot of newsletters, giving English lessons for free and nearly joining a cult-like organization. I got to the last one through culture and volunteering, so it's definitely a good idea to beware of volunteering with strings attached! Some of my current hobbies are: writing, reading, journaling here, my job and spending time with friends. I also occasionally go to the shooting range, play billiard, table football and organize student events with my geography group and blog. I agree. I prefer working on my master's thesis every day for two or three hours maximum. I can't do any more after. I know some people write the whole thing in two weeks, while I take three months with my tempo. Everybody's different. Plus, if it's a hobby, there's generally no "right" way to do a hobby.

I'm fairly interested in how these money steps are going to work out for you. It seems to me that you are just starting out to "manage" your money with a greater goal in mind. It's definitely a good idea to have something to fall back on if things aren't going as planned. Good luck!

22nd December - 2nd January: I worked on the thesis over Christmas as well. It's mostly formal stuff now: citations and formatting. Even then, it's been taking a surprising amount of time. I have nearly one hundred pictures in the thesis, which means I have to write a description for all of them and quote the source. Sometimes I need to go back to the original document if the graph/picture is not 100% understandable or complete on its own. Suddenly, 100x3mins=5 hours of work 😄 I also cleared out my mailboxes. I'm at an effective 0 of unread mails. I got the questionnaire out for my students. I attended a high-school reunion. I had a surprisingly good time. We usually have two of these each year, so I'll see about the summer one. I spent some time with my family and friends. I had some good social meetings and I enjoyed all of them.

I'm going to do a recap of my year 2023. I even encouraged my ToastMasters group to do the same at our last meeting this year, as I think it's valuable to just sit down, reflect and think constructively for a while. It'll be something similar to what I've done here: The first thing that comes to my mind is traveling. I really traveled a lot. I visited Finland, Poland and Georgia. The most interesting trip was definitely to Georgia and I'm happy I was there with my girlfriend as well. That leads me to my girlfriend. She's been very kind to me the whole year and I'm grateful to be with her. It's not that she doesn't have any problems at all, but I really think we complement each other well. We're gonna live together from April 2024 and I'm looking forward to it. My place of living has also already changed. I left the dormitory life behind me and moved to a shared flat. Truth to be told, it was mentally tiring to constantly be around students, granted I've been working for the last three years, and even a few years before that. My mentality is just too different from theirs now. Speaking of studying, I hopefully have just about a month of my studies ahead of me. My reading habit morphed into reading studies for my thesis and I'll pick up on reading books once I'm done with the university. I've been working on the thesis the whole August, part of September, whole November and whole December. At the moment, I'm cleaning up the thesis for the last few days. I'm going to study for the finals after submitting it. That'll make me the last member of my core family to get their master's degree. I think I've actually done well as far as my familial relationships go this year, especially making my grandma happy, though the kitchen project is still there. As for work, I've done many activities as well, such as setting up tracking systems to monitor my work (tables), providing my students added value in the form of shared documents or setting up a biannual feedback questionnaire for my students, attending business mentoring, networking... This new year, I'd like to focus more on being a good teacher than a good businessman. Therefore, the plan for the next year is to improve my professional qualification by getting a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) certificate. I want to improve my knowledge and improve the retention of my students. Perhaps the situation seemed better in April or May (as seen in the graph in the post above), when I recorded the biggest amount of private lessons I've ever taught. The beautiful thing that I however realized is that while my income is significantly lower (less lessons and full set of taxes apply to me now), I'm OK and I don't worry. I've build up a significant reserve over the past three years, that could easily satisfy enough three without me moving a finger. Maybe five if I lived like a cheapskate. I think working less actually helped me to have a better life balance, to have more time for my other hobbies, to spend more time with my girlfriend, to move more and even to allow more time to spend the money on myself. I really haggle about prices just for the fun of it now. Okay, I've bragged about my work enough. Time to check the goals for 2023 and set some for 2024. --- Evaluation of goals for 2023: Yes, that went as expected. I definitely cut the amount of lessons for language schools. I improved my business and took some new opportunities. Yes! 😄 I haven't had a long stretch of no porn as I did the last year (August - December 22), though I don't think I've been watching it too much overall. I have a good feeling that it will completely go away once I'm with my girlfriend in the flat. Normal news webpages are not a problem anymore, I just satisfy myself with "Current Events" on Wikipedia for a few minutes a day. I don't know how long I've been doing it (again), maybe just for a month, but it's especially helpful on the weekends when I want to start early, as during the week I usually start the morning with my students. I pretty much do all of that. I did good work 😄 --- Main must-have plans for 2024: Prepare for (Feb-June) and successfully make (July-August) the CELTA certificate course. Finish the university in January. In case something goes horribly wrong, then in May. I've got this. Move in with my girlfriend in April. Set up the new kitchen for my grandma. Optional nice-to-have plans for 2024: Re-start my financial blog in February. Learn how to type with all ten fingers on the keyboard. Habits: Stop watching porn (again). Start getting up when my alarm rings = Put my alarm across the room. Establish flossing at least once a week. Exercise regularly. Continue: planning, walking/exercising, writing/journaling, reading, working on good life/work balance. It's a short list, but if I manage all of it, I will be happy.

Yesterday I used my inter-dental toothbrush for the first time in a few months.

Amazing, great work! You did a great job visualizing and analyzing the past three months. I believe it was very useful for you and it was an interesting read for me too. I can say I love analyzing stuff too, so that's why I write a bigger report every month. At the same time, I also create about five smaller posts a month whenever something is on my mind. I believe it is like therapy. Then again, to get into deeper and more complex ideas, I can't just talk it over with somebody, I need to write it out and think about it.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 22/11/23 - 21/12/23 "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: Still on the business book, although I've been prioritizing other projects, so I didn't spend much time on it. T: Same. I also unsubbed from a lot of email newsletters several weeks ago, so I get very little nowadays. Possible direction/goals: (Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report. Family: L: 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. T: I went to a hockey match with my mom. I also visited the graveyard with my family to commemorate dead family members. 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: 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. T: I ranted about the thesis a little bit in my post above, but if I really had to submit it in 24 hours, I could. I just want it to be cohesive and well-written and that takes time. I've been working on it anywhere between 2-5 hours daily, sometimes I threw in an afternoon session too. Some 17 days are left to submit it. 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 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 🙂 T: I will have two new courses in January and one new in February, all of them my own (A). I went back to my reports, pulled the numbers that I write every month and construed a graph for the year. I've had less hours since July, though at the same time the share of my own students went up. The last quarter of the year wasn't as successful for me, though March-June were especially strong. T he new students in January/February should bring the hours up as well as A share above 60%. I'll use this in my all-year report for sure! An example for 18 hours the last week (12 - December): Category A 54% (53); B 8% (4); C 0% (5); D 5% (5); E 33% (33). 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 20-25 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: Cycling and walking still, though I prefer walks due to the weather. Had two hikes too. T: Nothing special, though a lot of walks. 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: On hold until I finish the uni thesis. 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!), attended a Toastmasters meeting, went to the sauna, played billiard, visited another city for a day trip, watched hockey with mom, . --- 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. Put my alarm across the room. - 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.

16th December - 21st December: My girlfriend and I went for a day trip to another city, together with her cousin and her husband. It was nice to visit some other place after a while. Watched "American Gangster" and had good fun with the movie. I cleaned and reorganized stuff in my room this week as well. Participated in the table football tournament and came up fifth, which is a success, as my regular teammate/friend was sick and another friend subbed for him. My thesis has been going on as usual. It's been going on since August and I'm kinda getting tired of it, which is normal I guess. I've been sending my tutor weekly updates for the last three months, though he hasn't given me much feedback ever since we agreed on the topic. I send him a message yesterday and he wrote he'll look at it over the week. I kinda hope he'll have just a few small things, as I have only a bit over two weeks to do something about it, while brushing up the rest of the text.

Any reason why? Is it his idea? A lot is at stake here, having an acceptable commute is a must. That's also in the mix. I watched a video on YT on that a few months ago, but I know you don't watch YT anymore. Maybe Books will watch it at least 😄

10th December - 15th December: I've been working on the data for the last week and I think I am gonna finish this part at the weekend. That's good news, as I thought I'd be working on it for the whole next week. Now I have two weeks to polish my thesis, with one week in January to print it and hand it in. Took my family to the graveyard at the weekend to commemorate my grandpa and my mom's relatives.I attended the speaking event on Wednesday. It was good fun as usual. I think I'm good at improvising and thinking in the moment, but I'm bad at speaking with preparation. Got my bike back from service. Other than that, I spend time with my girlfriend as usual. A common friend came to visit us too 🙂

I mean, the idea that this forum is not called "Game Moderators" but "Game Quitters" makes me think that we have to quit to make a meaningful difference. Maybe not forever, but it's often much easier to dispense with the whole thing than to try and balance it. Gaming is not a physiological need. Part of why I got into gaming was because it was so immersive, so it wouldn't make sense for me to restrict myself to certain times either. Some people can game healthily naturally, and good for them. I knew I couldn't and that the negatives outweighed the benefits. Welcome back!

I'm ashamed to (not) give compliments to others. I'm afraid of being judged by others, in case they overhear it, but also that it comes out as creepy towards the recipient. For example, telling an acquaintance that she is smart, looks good etc. I'm very bad at complimenting myself too, as I think there's nothing praiseworthy for following and executing a plan well.

4th December - 9th December: Still writing. I think I'm making good progress, so I don't have worries about not completing by the end of the year. I also went to the sauna with my girlfriend and another friend and played billiard yesterday. My sleep has been better the last few days, I swapped the mattress I slept on. I think I sometimes get headaches because I don't drink enough before I go to sleep. It's very annoying, as then it lasts the whole next day, so I need to watch that.

Here:

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