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mrmmartin

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Here I am again. I achieved 120 days last time I quit. One little slip up led to me playing again. I want to prove my family and friends wrong that I can achieve anything that I put my mind to. I have a beautiful wife and new-born baby boy, I must give up gaming for good this time.

Day one done.

 

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Day two.

I spend a lot more time with my boy today and let my wife get some well needed rest. 

Also, I was able to contact my university to let them know that I need some extra time for some assignments.

I  had a much better sleep not being up playing games to all hours of the morning. I already feel so much better both mentally and physically. 

Both my wife and I have come to a decision to sell a lot of my gaming setup and use the money to do some well needed renovations to our house.

Hope everyone had a successful day also.

 

 

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Day three.

Had another really productive day. I am trying to find hobbies that will 'Fill the Void' and alleviate some of the boredom that gaming helped fill. In my down time I am currently learning Spanish, trying to get my head around investing, drawing a lot more and looking after myself whether that be eating a bit cleaner or exercising. I have to admit though I really am trying to find a hobby that I am just drawn to like gaming, I love drawing and I want it to take over my passion for games, but I just am not getting that same feeling. Is that normal? Maybe I need to keep trying stuff out to find that spark.

Gaming has always been a social thing for me as well. My friends play a lot of games and I guess that is one of the reasons why I am always compelled to return to gaming. Before I quit I had purchased New World an upcoming MMO RPG and had around 10 friends that were also going to play. The release date is on the 28th of September so I really need to start making gaming as unappealing as possible so that I don't pick it back up.

I live in a part of Australia that is currently in lockdown. I have been in lockdown for around 3 months now, it makes quitting a lot it harder, however, my logic is if I can get through this whilst being stuck at home, when everything returns to 'normal' I should find it a lot easier.

That's all from me today, thank you for the likes on my last post really appreciate it and I hope everyone had another successful day.  

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Day 4

Summary of Day

For the first time in a very long time I managed to start an assignment before the due date and it feels great! The stress and anxiety that comes with leaving an assignment till the last minute had almost made me throw in the towel for my degree a second time. Around 2012 I began studying a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching and I was expected to have that completed around 2015, I would have been a qualified secondary teacher. I had to end up dropping out of the teaching section after really 'struggling' with workload and a number of other things.

Initially I blamed everyone and everything for dropping the teaching part of my degree, when in reality I only had myself to blame. I let gaming consume so much time that I could have spent studying and I would have finished the degree. It was this realisation that led me to enrol in a Masters of Teaching in 2020, I always felt that I had given up and I wanted to really prove to myself that I could do it. Now I am six months away from graduating and I almost let gaming derail my aspirations again. But I am here determined to not let gaming get in the way again.

Overall I had less cravings today. I didn't have time to work out unfortunately, but, I have worked out a schedule with my wife that I will wake up around 4-5am and feed our son then go for a run whilst he and my wife sleeps. Seeing that I want to put more time into drawing I was thinking of doing a daily drawing journal and maybe uploading it will my daily post. I have noticed that being productive is harder for me in the afternoon when my energy levels start to drain so I have reorganised my schedule to fit in a lot of those important tasks early in the morning when I am at my best.

Tomorrow's To-Do-List:

  • Meditation
  • Workout
  • Study
  • Spanish 
  • Speed reading course 
  • Draw
  • Read
  • Respond or like someone else's daily journal. 

Today I'm grateful for

  • A loving, supportive wife
  • A healthy son
  • The Respawn program

Onward to day 5.

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Day 5

Summary of day

Had a great productive day, getting up earlier definitely helped with getting things done. I managed to tick off almost everything on my to-do-list and feeling a lot happier. I have 3 more assignments due, with the last one due on the 8th of October then I am hoping to do some DIY work around the house (Starting with building a dog kennel) and collectively set some SMART goals for both me and my wife. I managed to get some good drawing time in, really enjoying digital art. I have attached what I worked on today in my free time, a... rooster...plague doctor? I'm not really sure.

Peace, hope everyone had a good day.

 

Edited by mrmmartin
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On 9/26/2021 at 10:42 PM, mrmmartin said:

Day 6

Short summary today, got a nice bit of exercise in and handed in an assignment on time for the first time in a very long time. Had a beer to celebrate 🍺.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

 

Edited by mrmmartin
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Day 7

Summary of day

Another day down, I took a break from study and completed some tasks around the house. Detailed cleaned the oven which had been neglected for sometime. Meal prepped my entire weeks lunches, Salmon with veg and turkey with rice and veg. I eventually want to progress to meal prepping my dinners and lunches. I have scheduled Sunday as a meal prep day so I can focus on other task during the week. 

I was hoping to have a more relaxing day after putting some intense study sessions over the last few days but I didn't really get to relax. I am spending a lot more time with my wife and baby which feels really good, I will probably make the effort to get in contact with friends and family more often and not neglect those relationships. The baby was really restless so any free time during the day was spent looking after him.

I was in the Army reserves as a rifleman for around 3 years and I am still technically in just on stand-down. I need to decide in the next few months if I am leaving for good or going back to active duty. I am torn with what to do, it will mean time away from family but I did really enjoy my time in, as difficult as  it was. I will also have to put into some decent physical training and review all the skills that I have not touched in sometime.

Overall a busy day but productive. Need to keep putting in those early workout sessions so that I don't have to find time during the day.

 

 

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Day 8

Had a pretty good day, nothing major to report. 

A few apps I found extremely helpful during study today:

  • Freedom (Premium) - There are free alternatives to this app, but I found it convenient that I could link my devices and have certain apps blocked on those devices.
  • Focus To-Do - Utilises the Pomodoro method (25 minutes of a task followed by a 5 minute break, repeated 4 times then you have a longer break of around 15 - 30 minutes). I find it really helpful to focus and have set break times. 
  • Todoist - Pretty self explanatory, set a to-do-list and systematically work through those tasks towards a daily goal.

Hope someone finds these helpful, good luck tomorrow.

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i have used all those apps before! i found them pretty useful! another app id suggest is forest, its like focus-to-do, but if you leave the app or stop focusing the tree that's been growing will die. i find forest helps me stay off my phone while im working. only thing is it costs money on the app store. another thing id say to do for studying is to try to find a quiet place where you can work. i wish all the best for you!
 

best 

jason

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Day 9

I definitely am getting urges to play games. I keep thinking about New World and my friends playing it and it almost feels like I am missing out on something. I need to keep myself busy and engaged with my new hobbies to take my mind off things.

I've been on a bit of a health kick with diet and exercise, which makes me feel really good but in the same instance at the start of the diet you feel miserable. 

Anyways I'm still going to keep moving forward and keep productive.

 

 

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Day 10

Been really struggling to get motivated to complete my last assignment. Second last one of the trimester then I get a few weeks off before uni starts back up. Really need to get motivated to complete it, having a lot more cravings to play games lately. I find myself staring of into this distance thinking about games often. Good news is that we should be coming out of lockdown very soon only a two more weeks then finally get some freedom.

I am hoping that with the extra freedom I can get back to the gym and maybe get into sports again, which should hopefully help keep my mind off gaming.

That's all for today, all the best for tomorrow everyone. 

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Day 11

I played a game of chess today online, I'm not going to count it as a relapse because it is something I have wanted to learn for a long time. I will make sure that it doesnt become something that stops me from doing my work or spending time with my family.

I have been procrastinating finishing my second last assessment for two days now. I spent like an hour or two on it then I just spend time with my wife and I don't put anymore effort in for the day. I am working on it currently I am hoping I can have it finished tomorrow so I can start my last assignment. 

Managed to get my Spanish lesson in as well as some drawing time. Will try to get back into exercising daily.

 

 

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Hey good luck with your assigments!
I am also trying to get to do daily exercise and recommend getting to stretch daily first before fully start working out, so your body does get used to movement (I do 10 minutes yoga stretch in the morning and 10 minute wrist stretch in the evening every day). Also stretch routines can be done even when feeling sick or tired, which helped me stay in movement last couple days after catching cold, so exercise was out of question.
Although to be honest I am still learning how to exercise properly, so if you have any tips or maybe bad experience with this kind of stretching, I am all ears.
All the best.

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@GundhamThanks mate. Finally got it in, on to the next one.

I've always wanted to improve my flexibility and have had brief looks into Yoga. I might have to have another look.

In terms of warm ups I would be careful doing static stretching if you are not already warm, I think yoga stretching though isn't really static though so should be all good. I tend to do a dynamic stretch like high knees, lunges, heel-to-but just to rule out any changes of injury. Typing in dynamic stretch examples into google will give you all you need, YouTube can give you a run down how to do them.

Exercise is great once you get past that initial few days of torture haha. All the best with you exercise journey. 

 

 

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Day 13

Had a really productive day. Some tasks I completed:

  • Mowed and edged the lawn
  • Meal prepped 7 days worth of meals
  • Cleaned up around the house
  • Finished my Spanish lesson
  • Cooked dinner
  • Played a game of Chess
  • Went for a 5km walk with wife and son.

And the days not over yet, might try finally selling some unused objects around the house.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

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Day 15

Another great day. Spent some time cleaning out some old draws found a lot of stuff that I don't actually use anymore and was able to upload a lot of it to Ebay for sale. Already sold 2 items really quickly, my goal is to sell all my consoles and gaming pc eventually. My wife and I have put a long term goal in place, we are just about to pay off debt that has been with us since we were around 18 years old, we want to have a house deposit in 2 years. Working out the finances it is definitely doable. Hoping to write down some more goals to help us to keep progressing.

I managed to get in a 5km run today, I haven't ran in a long time, I had some moments were I slowed and walked but overall I ran the majority. Really want to get that level of fitness I used to have back.

I didn't get as much study done as I would have hoped, I still have 2 days till my last assignment is due so I will aimed to get a lot done tomorrow.

Good luck everyone will tomorrow.

 

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Day 16/17

Been slowly grinding the days out. I managed to sell one of my consoles finally only my ps4 and gaming computer left I will list them after I finish this last assignment. 

I've been doing online training for my job this week and they sent a pretty awesome resource called 'Smiling mind'. It focuses on mindfulness and how to achieve mindfulness through meditation. They have a number of free modules for anyone who is interested.

A bit behind on my assignment again because I have been procrastinating. Before I could get away with procrastinating before starting an assignment but now that I have a baby if I don't start the assignment in the window that I've allocated it falls through the cracks. Definitely something that I need to work on.

Hope everyone had a great day.

 

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18 hours ago, mrmmartin said:

Day 18

Struggled a bit today, diet hasn't been the greatest the last few days and I haven't had energy to go out and exercise.

Need to get back into a routine.

Can understand that feeling. Some days are sluggish and it can be difficult commit to do anything.
Agree with you that building a routine can help alleviate that struggle.

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Day 19

Final assessment done for the trimester! Feels like a weight is lifted off my shoulders, now I can get into some DIY around the house I have been putting off.

My next trimester starts in two weeks, so I really want to get on top of everything so I can start the trimester hassle free. I have a major exam in November and a teacher accreditation interview coming up so I will start preparing myself for those as well. On the 22nd of October I start my career as a casual teacher, all that hard work has finally paid off. By July next year I will be fully graduated, cannot wait!

@ChewyChickenBones Thanks Chewy. Glad to know that others are in the same boat.

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Day 22

House appraised, may be looking to sell and move for a fresh start. House is extremely clean now, hopefully we can keep it that way.

My marriage anniversary tomorrow, I haven't really planned anything which I feel bad about seeing as we've just came out of lockdown. I will look up some stuff tonight that is kid friendly.

Looking forward to the next few days.

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