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Day 20. Day 6 of 30 of Challenges. Work continues. Habits continue! Settling into a reasonable routine now, though still losing a lot more time to online dithering than I'd like to. Focus is on the assignments due on Thursday, so journals'll likely be a good deal briefer until that's done. Happy hunting, folks.

'The inside of a cab-dispatchers office.' is a magnificent turn of phrase. Just didn't want to let that slip by unremarked. That creative writing bug lives on.

Day 19. Day 6 of 30 of Challenges. Much the same as yesterday! Took a break from most habits for Sunday, but kept on keeping on with my coding project. Turns out I enjoy it when it's not done under 2am-must-complete-or-fail conditions. Who'd've thought it? Still a lot of work to do before things come due on Thursday, but then it's break time. Looking forward to the chance to really get on with some drawing/writing, and finally track down a gym like I've been saying I'll do for weeks.

I've got a whiteboard set up in the room, Lamp! Came with the dresser, and only just got around to finding a use for it. It's working fairly well. Day 18. Day 6 of 30 of Challenges. Tiny journal today. Breakfast with the folks, then spent most of the day chasing bookings for holidays. More exhausting then it has any right to be, at the moment!

Day 17. Day 6 of 30 of Challenges. Stalled a little on challenges lately, will need to get back to that. Otherwise, schedule's sticking. Tried to line up family holiday bookings, but all the flights are booked out, so looking at some alternate options. Learned about DrawABox as a learn-to-draw method, so I'll pick that up once I've finished working through the current sketchbook. Didn't get through any code today, so want to jump back and get something done before I call it a day. Hopefully will check out a gym over the weekend.

Day 16. Day 6 of 30 of Challenges. Back to the regular schedule now. Reviewed the last chapter of Slight Edge and made up a list of daily habits to stick to. So far, we're sticking. Finished up the introduction to python on Brilliant, and started up on my coding assignment. Got through most of the first question, of three. Don't get me wrong, the code's buggy and non-functional, but it's there! If I can continue to contribute rough code at a question a day for the next couple of days, it'll be pretty much done. Otherwise, quietly happy with how things are chugging along. Just having a schedule to fall into makes the day a bit more productive for me. These journal entries are getting shorter, too. In part because there's less to write about - the grand plans have been made, the sweeping changes are in place. But in part too, because I'm feeling a good deal more relaxed. There's less to fuss over. Off to watch some more lectures.

Day 15. Day 6 of 30 of Challenges. Lot of travel time, today. Had to get out to the other side of town for an appointment, so ended up losing five hours to just getting there and getting back. Public transport in my city's great, but it still takes time. Little habits are settling nicely. Jumped up to ten minute morning meditation now, so the routine's fallen into wake up, dress and make bed, meditation, run, gratitude journal, shower, breakfast, and then swoop down on the nearest coffee shop like a raven on tinfoil. Which is more in a couple of hours than I was previously managing all day! Finished reading the Slight Edge too, and heartily recommend it. I'm not implementing steps in every segment of life Olsen identified just yet, but I figure health and happiness are a good start. Realised I'd not put Think and Grow Rich on the eReader, and ended up opening up a copy of Seven Pillars of Wisdom I bought on a Sabaton-induced whim a while back. Attitudes of the early 20th century aside, Lawrence's writing has an air of unreality to it. Not untruth, necessarily, but a sense of something not quite real. Will report more once I've read enough to form an opinion. Not too long left in the day now, but want to get at least one Brilliant module done before I head out for a walk and settle in for the evening. A fair bit of work to be getting on with over the next week - There's the last two big assignments of the semester, both due in a week, and I've started neither. The bad news is they're due in a week. The good news is that, with today's appointment out of the way, they're all I have to do over the next week. Should be perfectly doable. Haven't had the chance to fling out today's challenge, but the day's not done yet.

Well, do fish cry?

Yeah, Headspace has been great! I went ahead and subb'd to it straight up to tie myself into sticking to it, which seems to have worked. The book's been fine otherwise, though we're leaning more into the dangerous and uncharted 'Develop Social Skills' waters now. We'll see how it goes! It adds a bit of variety to the day, if nothing else. I broke the rules and read ahead a day, so tomorrow's challenge is to grab a selfie with a stranger. I'm not quite sure how I'll manage that, since my anti-web-browsing phone may not actually be able to take photos. I'll have to check. Day 14. Day 6 of 30 of Challenges. Lulls, today. Finally, the much-vaunted boredom arrives. Did a couple of little things towards organising a Christmas trip, sent through an extension request on that assessment item, read some more of Slight Edge. Also, adapted Cam's challenge and bought a coffee for the person behind me instead. It's not quite the same uncomfortable-social-situation thing, but it's something a little out of the ordinary, so I'm going to go ahead and count it anyway. I darted off with my coffee before I saw who it ended up being. Felt like knowing spoils the mystery. I've found I'm exhausted when I have to spend the day working on the computer, as I have today. It's just super motivation-sucking. I signed up for Brilliant to refresh myself a little with some basic coding and build some confidence before I jump on the next assignment. It's all fairly rudimentary stuff, but I've been able to get more than halfway through what exists of Brilliant's python course, which indicates I've at least learned something at university! Been tempted to game a bit more now, as the impacts slide slowly into the past. I was meaning to stay off discord until I hit at least thirty days (and uninstalled it from my desktop), but bumped into the app last night while checking the (now stripped of its sim card and stuffed unceremoniously in a draw) smartphone while I was getting some photos I needed. There's a few folks there asking where I got to. Which is fair enough, I did vanish without a word. Was in that space where any delay at all meant I wouldn't have done it. They'll have to wonder a for a couple of weeks more before I can jump back in and at last extract myself from all those groupchats. Back into the drawer of shame, smartphone. I'm glad I've made it so difficult for myself to fire up games. Paying dividends now! Eyes on the next two weeks. Soon, thirty days. Soon.

Good stuff. It's hard to depend on willpower alone not to pick up the games. Uninstalling completely definitely helped me, and it's cool to see that it looks to he helping out on your end. Got to build those barriers to entry when you've got the commitment, to hold you through those moments when it wanes a bit. Keep it up!

It really is a great one. I've been getting a lot more than I expected out of it. It'll definitely be going on the re-read pile. Olsen writes very fondly of Think and Grow Rich, so I'll probably put that on the list next. I've never really been interested in that style of book before, but - Y'know. Familiarity is the first part of interest, so a little more reading can't hurt! Day 13. Day 5 of 30 of Challenges. Exam went well! Not as well as it could have, had I been studying like I did the last couple of weeks all semester, but an awful lot better than they tended to go while I was gaming. Had a little panic when I arrived outside the exam hall, and heard two nearby people exchanging technical terms that I'd never heard before in my life. Turned out they were running multiple exams in the same hall. I started breathing again. If I'd kept up with my other work throughout the semester, I'd be sure it was a pass for that course - As it is, I'm not sure if the exam itself will be enough to carry me over the line, but it'll certainly be good enough to quality me for supplementary assessment if it isn't. It's a nice feeling, and a nice little verification of the work over the last couple of weeks. For the first time in a while I ran out of time to answer questions (and only barely!), rather than questions I could answer. Had to skip yesterday evening's drawing and this morning's run, due to exam study and the actual exam respectively. Although, when I say 'Exam Study' last night, those last couple of hours ended up going down the reddit rabbit hole a bit. A hell of a lot better than losing the whole day, but I should probably have just admitted to myself I was knackered around 8pm and taken some time for myself rather than expecting heroic efforts. On the whole, it worked out. Morning meditation's on track! Just about through the Headspace's 10-Day beginner program now. Adopted a gratitude journal as well. Say this for the program, say I'm a lot more open to new things (hippy nonsense! Humbug!) than I was two weeks ago. A little weary today, so just been downloading and setting up a lot of uni software packages I've been neglecting for years. Looking forward to a walk this evening. Found a baby bird that had fallen out of the nest and was hiding under a car on one of my weekend walks, and saw that someone else had stuffed a towel into a fork in a nearby tree - Probably to try to hold the little guy. Picked him up and put him back. He's an invasive species around here, but I don't think he knows that. He (or she!) screamed at me the whole time for food. Came back the next day to find the towel on the ground and no trace of him. Hope he's alright. It got pretty windy last night. Two assignments due now, and then that's it for the semester. Next one's due Thursday, though I'm going to put in an extension request and ask for another week. I'm more or less on top of my schedule now, but it's a fairly large project and doing it in two days is a little unrealistic if I want to do excessive things like sleep as well. The university's been very good about granting extensions, so hopefully they'll grant me this one more. I've got high hopes it'll be the last 'I failed to regulate my life, please help.' letters I'll ever write. Didn't manage Cam's challenge today, either. It's the 'Ask for 10% off your coffee!' one. Which, in all honesty, I just feel super awkward doing here. Australia doesn't really do negotiation on price, or tipping. The price is just - Well. The price. That, and I know most of the folks who work at the local coffeeshops, and they've been struggling a lot with the virus. It doesn't sit right with me to ask them for a discount. I'll think of something else to do to check the feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyway box. I welcome suggestions, if anyone's got a replacement for me! Also, two weeks tomorrow! Woo!

(I swear, I do things other than recommend browser extensions. Please don't ban me, forums.) I think a lot of us tend to hit youtube (and the internet in general!) pretty hard when we first quit. Just looking for stuff to fill the time! If you use chrome, there's an extension called 'Youtube Rabbit Hole' that gets rid of all the suggestions / recommendation bits of youtube, and essentially just turns it into something where you have to search for a particular video to find it. I stumbled across it about a week in, and found that getting rid of that constant barrage of suggestions got rid of my lengthy youtube dives. Might help!

This, too! I did some work on placement for a company using google scripts and a bit of (outsourced) webmagic to help with tracking competencies and sign in / out for people. Google scripts is remarkably well documented and can really do a whole lot, even for someone like me who'd never worked with web design or google scripts before. As long as you don't look at my error log. Please don't look at it.

Good on you, Lamp. I was super hesitant to try therapists as well, and put it off for years. Felt like a right muppet at the end of it - They're just folks, and hopefully they'll be able to help out some. For me it was just a bit of confirmation, and a bit of help turning myself in the direction I wanted to be going. As far as python learning goes, though! I've heard great things about 'Automate the Boring Stuff with Python' as a complete beginner's let's-just-make-useful-things, and figure out the rest on the fly kind-of book. Though, by the sound of your courses, you're probably a little further ahead with the language than I am.

Had the same phone problem, Panda! Ended up picking up some cheapo Nokia for thirty bucks that can't do all the smartphone things, since I've got the willpower of a paper towel and will use it if I've got it. Obviously, a little different if you're on a phone plan rather than a sim-only, like I was, but maybe that's worth considering as an option? Also, the battery lasts three days, because it's not smartphone-ing. Which is a nice little benefit.

You can do it! What you've written here definitely echoes how my journey's been so far, disrupted sleep, suspected celiac, and all. I used to game until exhaustion, and then fall into bed and drop off pretty much immediately. Since I stopped, sleep's been slower to come, and more interrupted (though, oddly, since I'm actually making an effort to take regular hours of sleep, on the whole I'm more rested). It's all small steps, and you won't see buckets of progress straight-up. It's a wild ride, initially. Gaming filled a heap of a niches for you, and it takes time and effort to find alternatives - But, it's very much worth it. Cam's big ol' book of hobbies was useful for me. You don't need anything that you're super passionate about, just something to give a go. I found a routine was more of a help than anything else. At 7.30pm, I sit down and draw now, regardless of how I'm feeling at the time. Knowing it'll happen, regardless, seems to help a bit with the restlessness, at least for me. Extensions like youtube rabbit hole, greyscale the web, and pause all helped a bit with cutting down wayward browsing, too. It's rough, and getting settled into a new routine is probably the hardest part. But, if it's any comfort, it gets a little easier from there.

Day 12. Day 5 of 30 of Challenges. Morning breakfast with the folks, then home and back to work. Exam's tomorrow, and I've still got a fair bit of review I'm hoping to get through tonight. A little anxious. There's a lot to cover, and only so many hours in the day. Will do what I can. Daily drawing continues apace. Made a vision board for today's challenge. Was very dubious of the idea, but found it was a bit of fun once I got stuck into it. Continued reading Slight Edge around other things. Continuing to enjoy it. Set up folding@home on the old gaming machine. Might as well do something semi-productive with the hardware. Back to study.

Welcome! And I'll fight you on boring, Lamp! Having a choice in how I spend my time's pretty great, as far as I'm concerned. 😄

It definitely is, @ceponatia, and there's that deeply uncomfortable period where you're aware you're doing it and do it anyway. That 'first couple of seasons' is worrying, Lamp! But, I suppose we'll get there when we get there. Day 11. Day 4 of 30 of Challenges. Busy! Exam's looming on Monday, and there's a lot to get fresh in my head before then. Been making flashcards all day. Still got a few weeks worth of content to get through, but I'd like to have them all done by tomorrow, so I can just hammer them into my skull over Sunday. Being honest, making the cards was a little indulgence of the old anxiety-bug. I sat down to study, immediately panicked, and had a 'No, I can't use printer paper for cards! I know! I'll wander over to the shops and buy some proper cards.' I was through the doors and halfway up the centre escalator before I realised that I'd just managed to excuse-myself out of starting work for another twenty minutes. Sneaky. Still, I'm making them now, and they're helpful. Thankfully, the challenge for this morning was something I'd coincidently already done - Just setting the morning schedule, with meditation and physical activity, and all that good stuff. No real changes to make there at this stage. Did adjust the Pause App to wait five minutes instead of five seconds before opening websites I've got on the list, since five seconds wasn't really enough to keep me from idly web-wandering. That includes Game Quitters, so I'll be cutting down on the visits to once or twice a day. It's a really good extension, and I'm liking it a lot. It helps that I lobotomised chrome to disable incognito mode, so I can't just jump into that to disable all the extensions. Back to flashcard making!

Woo! Congratulations on the position! What a great spot to be in, going into the New Year.

It's very much a tangent, but you're all terrifying with the acupuncture. There's something in me that just rebels against the idea of it. But, hey, if it helps, it helps! I saw a sign at the vets around here recently. A cartoon of a needle-sprouting cat, some horrifying amalgamation of porcupine and feline. Animal Acupuncturist! it proudly proclaimed, alongside a phone number. That, I thought, is an incredibly brave soul. You couldn't pay me enough to put needles in the animal with razor blades on its hands.

Hi Tom! Welcome to the gang! I know finding this place was a tremendous help to me in putting down games and moving on - Sounds as if we started around the same time. As you said, it's great to have a place where it can be treated honestly for all us folks who've found it to be a problem. I've noticed there's a few posters around here with various military backgrounds. I wonder if it's all the hurry up and wait. 😄 In any case, best of luck on your journey and congratulations on making the start!

Welcome and good luck, fellow engineering student!

Day 10. Day 3 of 30 of Challenges. Today was a good one. Morning runs are doing wonders for the mood, even if my legs spend the rest of the day screaming protests. Meeting with the counsellor went well, and he's of the opinion I don't really need to be there, which is a positive reflection on the changes over the last ten days. We've scheduled in a couple of check-ins before next year at my prompting - It'll do me good to have the potential of a couple of checks down the way, just to keep me honest while I settle into these new habits. Didn't have time to do study today, unfortunately, around having to make a run to university to sort out IDs and travel out and back for the session. Did grab what time I had to set the groundwork and get software packages set up for a couple of upcoming projects though, so I know they'll be working for the weekend. A good thing too, as it turns out that Autodesk gets on with Windows 10 Antivirus in the same way gasoline gets on with a match. Thwacked it, looked up troubleshooting, and did everything short of feed a sacrificial goat into the USB port. Eventually got it working. Challenge for the day was to pick up and read a chapter of The Slight Edge. My usual reading's fiction, and I've spent a lot of years cultivating a quiet, internal contempt for self-help books (my folks went through a 'Law of Attraction' phase way back when that dumped me firmly in the 'Oh God, if I have to inanely recite what I want once more, I'm going to scream.' camp), so I'm surprised to find the going's not quite so hard as I expected. The goal was one chapter, but between the time spent on busses today and some reading over lunch, I'm about halfway through the book. It's all about those little habits, and how they wind up shaping where you end up. It's a cool idea - I'm unsure if it needs to be stretched over an entire book, but it's a light enough read, and there's things worth taking from it. I plan to pillage relentlessly. First evening of drawing went well yesterday. I made a window. Thanks, Idiot's Guide to Drawing. Settling down in the evenings to watch Peaky Blinders with the roommate. Tommy's a scary dude.

My drawing project for yesterday was a window, and that was hard enough. Human figure's a whole different ballgame. I'm envious! Keep with it, you'll get there. Same with the workouts, really (I say, rubbing at my aching legs).