FDRx7 Posted September 21, 2023 Author Share Posted September 21, 2023 Day 15 - Wednesday Summary: My first 5-star day! I managed to do everything today. I was almost going to give myself 4 stars for the hobby one, but I think with the discipline I showed as well as the other activities I engaged in, a 5 is justified. I'm improving and need to have a little grace with myself as well. I'm so excited about finally getting to bed on time. I found an older notebook in the basement and am using that for my sleep journal in the morning. I already set it up. It really helped me adjust my sleep last time, so I think I will just start doing it again in perpetuity. It doesn't take very long anyways. Maybe I'll do a little more introspection tomorrow, but for now I'm just very pleased with how today went. Now it's off to bed, as I'm tired from my lack of sleep yesterday... PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 30): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: 30 days!! Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Watched one hour tonight to unwind and then quit. Plan: Continue with only one computer permissible and an hour max. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Listened while I did some chores and eating lunch, but when it was time to focus for work, I put on Brain.FM which really helped. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game today. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 39): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Back in the saddle! Journaled tonight. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Picking a Healthy Hobby: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: While I did watch an hour of streaming earlier, I also walked the dog, spent some time with my wife eating dinner together, and prepped myself for the next day. Planning to read in bed tonight. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Pick Top 3 to Complete: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Got all three done today for both work and personal! Feels good. The personal ones were small, but they advanced some of my goals in a positive direction. Plan: Continue to pay attend to scheduling your personal ones so you are more likely to remember and commit. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: I might be a couple minutes late, but I am getting ready for bed at my goal tonight (around 11:30pm)! Additionally, I started winding down around 10:30 after putting away dishes. Plan: Set a timer for you to know when to get ready for bed. This should include your time for journaling. That's probably going to be about 10-10:30pm. Read your novel in bed. Try to start walking back by 15 min increments every few days or week. Set up a new sleep journal. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 22, 2023 Author Share Posted September 22, 2023 Day 16 - Thursday (yesterday) Summary: Another good day yesterday. I fell a bit short on my Top 3 goal, but I'm still moving in a positive direction. I'm really happy about how my sleep has been trending the last two days. I anticipate that today will be a bit different because it's Friday, as I often stay up a little later. Still, even if I stay up I will ensure that I complete my sleep routine and fall asleep in bed. I'm doing a little better with my podcasts too. I need to reassess what I really want to listen to. On the one hand, I do enjoy some of them but on the other I feel that it can be just too much noise/stimulation. When it is the latter, the surface-level sensation is that I'm enjoying listening, but underneath there is some sort of rising stress from the noise (not sure if that makes any sense, it's just something I feel). It's almost like forcing yourself to do something that you think will be helpful when deep down your body is telling you it isn't. Each day, I'm taking a bit more pride in my work. There are good days and bad, but my mindset is much different than it was 45 days ago - even from the start of journaling here on GameQuitters. I'd like to add more habits to track, like my morning routine or standardizing some form of learning, but right now is not the best time. I need establish these habits first and let the foundation set. It appears that my brain fog is slowly disappearing and creativity is returning. However, I still perceive that my thoughts move from one to the next without a full connection of the big picture. Indeed, I believe this comes across even in my writing. I used to be a better writer but now I feel that I move from one sentence to the next without really holding in my mind the larger concept of what I wrote (this is true too for reading). It should get better with time, and rereading what I wrote helps. I'll just need to continue practicing. PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 31): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Watched one hour again tonight to unwind and then quit. Plan: Continue with only one computer permissible and an hour max. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Again today I listened while I did some chores and eating lunch, but when it was time to focus for work, I put on Brain.FM. When I got ready for bed, I did not listen to any podcasts and was able to fall asleep relatively quickly. I almost reached for the podcasts when I felt stress arising but I noticed it and chose to name the sensation instead, which kept me from turning to it as a distraction. There was one point in the day though where I was reading something on my phone and had a podcast running (that I somewhat like) but wasn't really paying attention - hence the 4 stars. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game today. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 40): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Made a really fun mocktail last night instead. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did my journaling and finally finished the story I was trying to capture. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Picking a Healthy Hobby: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: While I did watch an hour of streaming earlier, I also walked the dog, and got a little more involved with my mocktail hobby. I've noticed that while reading is a good hobby, if I'm really tired from the day I will avoid it more often. Maybe I need to have books that are a bit more demanding (like what I'm currently reading) and some that are light for pure entertainment (like what I'm reading before bed - I could make that have a dual purpose). Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan hobbies for when you have low energy. Pick Top 3 to Complete: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Got all three done today for work but missed the personal ones. Happy about the win for work but also need to do better with paying attention to personal goals. Plan: Continue to pay attention to scheduling your personal ones so you are more likely to remember and commit. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Once again got ready at 11:30, my goal! I also restarted my sleep journal and I think that has been helping. Plan: Set a timer for you to know when to get ready for bed. This should include your time for journaling. That's probably going to be about 10-10:30pm. Read your novel in bed. Try to start walking back by 15 min increments every few days or week. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 23, 2023 Author Share Posted September 23, 2023 Day 17 - Friday (yesterday) Summary: Yesterday was a busy Friday at work. Felt like I had a bunch of things to do but not enough time. My evening was very relaxing though and I'm happy that even though I stayed up later, I still completed my bedtime routine. I felt so fresh afterwards and was glad I pushed myself to do it, even though I was tired. I think I want to create a meal plan for myself today. I've been struggling with eating enough. I work out and am trying to continue building muscle, but I've been stuck at the same weight for a while. I know the cause is my inconsistent diet, because the training stimuli is certainly enough. I just get busy with my day and don't eat until I'm super hungry. Other days I eat a lot. It just needs to be more consistent. I won't create a starred habit for it yet, just write it down there to track. Eventually, once I've got it to a place where I think it will work, I'll start scoring it. For now, I just need to figure out what to do and what will work best. The data is interesting to look at. I'm starting to see some rough patterns, like how my average score dips about every four days, but most especially on Fridays. I've added a day of the week marker to each which will clarify things a bit more. I'll need to be more vigilant on Fridays to stay with my habits. Today I'm going to go out and get some things at the store. I have some finishing tweaks to make on the record player and it'll be fun to just go out and browse. PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 32): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Watched 2 hours last night, so longer than normal. Did shut it off after. However, I finished the show I was watching (I know, I said this last time) and have nothing else of interest to watch. I think I might just block it all together today. Plan: After finishing journal, block streaming completely. At least until the end of the 90 days. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Didn't listen too much today, but used it at the end of the night a bit to keep my from feeling lonely. I fell asleep to one, which is something I've been trying not to do (and have been good about recently), but the rest of the day was good. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: I did game but only for about 3 hours with my friends, which is my total time for the week. So giving myself 5 stars because it wasn't an amount I would consider excessive and was on Friday, which I'm allowing myself to do. I did stay up later though, which I expected would happen. Again, giving myself a little leeway on the weekend. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 41): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Explored another mocktail and even made a cool ginger syrup for it. I want to get more ingredients at the store today to continue experimenting. I've even got a few of my cocktail buddies interested in mocktails now! They actually feel harder to make, so there is a creative labor involved. Plan: Continue current behavior. Buy new ingredients at the store! Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆ Description: Totally forgot to journal. I would have done it too had I remembered because I still did my nightly routine, but just forgot. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Picking a Healthy Hobby: Adherence: ★★☆☆☆ Description: Watched a little more streaming than I should have, which ate up time for other things. I would have given myself more stars, but I didn't read before bed and instead read a bit on my phone and listened to that podcast. Not exactly my desired behavior, but today is a new day. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan hobbies for when you have low energy. Pick Top 3 to Complete: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Got some done for work but none for personal again. I think I need to do something different here. It's top 3 for work and personal, but as I work throughout the day, priorities shift. Maybe I need to say "choose top 3" but then be flexible with myself as the priorities shift because it's very probable that what I thought was top 3 may be different from what emerges to be top 3 throughout the day. Plan: Continue to pay attention to scheduling your personal ones so you are more likely to remember and commit. Give yourself grace on what is considered priority because you need to account for shifting priorities throughout the day. Maybe switch to completing 3 things from your Next Actions list, in no particular order of priority. That's probably better than stressing to adhere to too rigid a framework. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Did not get ready early because I stayed up later (and knew I would), but I did complete my nightly routine. That made me very happy. Plan: Set a timer for you to know when to get ready for bed. This should include your time for journaling. That's probably going to be about 10-10:30pm. Read your novel in bed. Try to start walking back by 15 min increments every few days or week. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Create a plan on what to eat and when so that you become more consistent. Plan: Develop a rough schedule and a list of things you should eat. Then, write when you will eat what so that it removes most of the decision fatigue surrounding this problem. The hope is to eventually move away from a schedule, but I think I need the rigidity of it right now. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 24, 2023 Author Share Posted September 24, 2023 Day 18 - Saturday (yesterday) Summary: Yesterday was a mix of good and not so good... The good was that I went out and spent about 2.5 hours sifting through records at the record store. Because the store is moving, they are having a sale where on Fridays and Saturdays until the end of the month, you can fill up a crate/box full of records for only $10. I've already been there twice and purchased two boxes 🙂 . I stocked up on classical music because my wife and I like to put that on while reading. I also grabbed some older 78rpms which most people don't want, but I like big band stuff so it works out for me. I also bought two books on sale that I'd like to read. I have a large lineup of books right now, but I had been thinking of those for a while and bought them at a good price. I went to the grocery store and did a big stock-up for the week. I grabbed everything I need to start executing on my meal plan. I'm beginning with a schedule where I eat breakfast and then a "second breakfast" to encourage me to eat more but in smaller portions. There are two snack periods as well as lunch and dinner. I can also have some cottage cheese before bed. I think this rigidity will help me to begin eating better to meet my goals. The only thing I need to do today is set the exact times for when to eat these. I want to prepare it all tonight. So for example, I'm going to make two protein shakes ahead of time and refrigerate them in mason jars. Then, when the timer goes off, I just pull them out of the fridge. No worrying about taking time from work to prepare them. The not-so-good yesterday was that I ended up watching more streaming last night, but nothing I was really interested in. I realized it was just something to do while I ate my food. Whether the meal is simple or complex, I should really be eating at the table and just enjoy the meal. Furthermore, I fell asleep down there which always bothers my allergies and is never a restful sleep. So, I blocked all streaming for the remainder of the 90 days. I wish I had done it yesterday like I said I would, but that's alright. It's done now. I used to drink a lot of tea back in the day, and I think that fell off when I started drinking alcohol. As part of my no-alcohol journey during these 90 days, I want to reinvigorate my love for tea. There is a mocktail that uses Lapsang Suchong tea to mimic an Old Fashioned. I'm hoping the tea shop down the street has it, but I want to go there anyways to reignite that interest. I was reading in a small book the other week that tea can become like wine; there is an incredible depth of varieties, flavors, tasting notes, smells, colors, etc. I'd like to cultivate that taste. PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 32): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★☆☆☆ Description: Didn't block it like I said I was going to yesterday.... I didn't watch a lot, but I fell asleep with it on and woke up on the basement couch. Really annoyed at myself for this. I know I was tired, but that's not how I want to spend my night. I set the strict block on all computers just now, so I cannot watch streaming until Dec 6. Plan: Blocked. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Did pretty good here. Listened while putting away groceries and a little bit in the car, but that's about it. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 41): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Bought a bunch of ingredients last night to continue developing my mocktail skills! I would also like to get back into tea. I used to drink a lot of it, and all kinds. There is a tea shop right down the street. I think I'll go there today. Plan: Continue current behavior. Check out the tea shop to expand your taste in tea. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆ Description: Didn't journal because I fell asleep in the basement... Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Now that I cannot stream or watch passive entertainment, I hope to be more consistent. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Picking a Healthy Hobby: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Other than the streaming I wrote about above, I was out and bought a bunch of records ($10 to fill up a box! Pretty cool), planned the meal schedule for the week, and did grocery shopping. While I wouldn't call grocery shopping a hobby, it was certainly something important to do that set me up for the week. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan hobbies for when you have low energy. Pick Top 3 to Complete: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: I didn't actually sit down to choose top 3, though I got some important things done yesterday. Plan: Continue to pay attention to scheduling your personal ones so you are more likely to remember and commit. Give yourself grace on what is considered priority because you need to account for shifting priorities throughout the day. Maybe switch to completing 3 things from your Next Actions list, in no particular order of priority. That's probably better than stressing to adhere to too rigid a framework. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★☆☆☆☆ Description: Only giving one star because I didn't stay up super late. However, I didn't complete my bedtime routine or go to sleep in bed because I fell asleep in the basement. Plan: Set a timer for you to know when to get ready for bed. This should include your time for journaling. That's probably going to be about 10-10:30pm. Read your novel in bed. Try to start walking back by 15 min increments every few days or week. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Created a rough plan yesterday and bought everything I need to begin executing on it. Plan: Tonight, make some of the food you need for tomorrow/the week - breakfast stuff, shakes, and lunch. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 25, 2023 Author Share Posted September 25, 2023 (edited) Day 19 - Sunday (yesterday) Summary: Good day overall. I spent time going to the tea shop and bought a bunch of sampler teas to get me started, as well as the Lapsang Suchong I set out for. My wife and I went to see Howl's Moving Castle in theaters as part of the Studio Ghibli Celebration. That was fun, as I had never seen it before. I tried to do some of my weekly review for my task management system, but only partially succeeded. I did get through about half of it though. Importantly, I applied for a new job. I've been feeling like this company I'm currently at is not working for me anymore (I've been feeling this way for a long time), but I've been too afraid to apply to other places. It was much easier for me to run away from that by watching YouTube. Now, I have time to do this. I have a goal to apply for one job a day. I doubt I will hit this everyday, but it is something to strive for. I've asked for a raise at work and it has been delayed since February. I'll bring it up again but in tandem I need to take control of my future. I've done a lot for the company and I am not seeing the return. I went to sleep quite late, mostly because the movie ended later. That's fine, but I realized 5 hours is not enough sleep for me. I need to start getting ready for bed at 10 at the latest and be asleep by 11 to get 7 hours. I don't seem to have too much trouble these days falling asleep once I'm in bed, so I just need to be disciplined enough to get in there on time. I do think my brain fog is slowly clearing. I think I'm starting to remember things better and I'm searching for words less often. I'm still somewhat scatterbrained though. My brain feels like sometimes it's in 4 places at once. My wife had to repeat a sentence she said to me because I cruised right by something it - not because I meant to but because my brain was moving quickly and thinking about a solution based on something I read. I felt bad because it wasn't on purpose, and she understood. My therapist told me not to focus on it too much yet, but there is a possibility of ADD/ADHD. However, she said it could be simply distractability that I've trained myself into, so I need to just monitor it as I make all these changes to see if it improves as my habits do. She said normally she can tell early on if a patient has it and did not sense that with me, but that we should not rule it out completely. I'm sure that the auto-play and switching from videos I don't like has trained my brain to constantly seek something novel, even if I don't want it to do that. Right now, my focus should be on altering behaviors and habits. Once I've had time to sit with those, we can revisit the ADD/ADHD topic if the behavior persists. I'm not concerned if that turns out to be true. I just want the scatter-brained feeling to stop and for focus to increase, however that might be remedied. PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 33): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did very well. Only listened to 1.5 podcasts - in the car and while doing some mundane tasks. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 42): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed a journal entry recapping the day. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Now that I cannot stream or watch passive entertainment, I hope to be more consistent. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Changed the name to more accurately reflect the type of behavior I desire (it doesn't have to just be a hobby - it can be spending quality time with friends/family/my wife, relaxing quietly, going for a walk, etc.). Spent time with my wife watching Howl's Moving Castle in theaters as part of the Studio Ghibli Celebration. Went to the tea shop as planned and tried to do some of my weekly review for my task management. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Complete 3 Next Actions: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Got two of my tasks done including applying for a job, which was a big step. Plan: Continue to pay attention to scheduling your personal ones so you are more likely to remember and commit. Give yourself grace on what is considered priority because you need to account for shifting priorities throughout the day. Maybe switch to completing 3 things from your Next Actions list, in no particular order of priority. That's probably better than stressing to adhere to too rigid a framework. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Better. Completed my evening routine, but went to bed very late because I stayed up later with my wife. I don't regret that time spent, but I only got about 5 hours of sleep by the time I was in bed, which is not enough. I'm still kind of groggy. To get 7, I need to be asleep by 11. I usually fall asleep pretty quickly. That means I've got to start getting ready by 10 at the latest. Plan: Set a timer for 10pm to start getting ready for bed. This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Try to start walking back by 15 min increments every few days or week. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Didn't get a chance due to everything yesterday to fully prepare meals, but I intend to do so today. I also still need to get specific about the times to eat. Plan: Tonight, make some of the food you need for tomorrow/the week - breakfast stuff, shakes, and lunch. Set schedule. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Edited September 28, 2023 by FDRx7 Removed part about tea shop as I already did that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 26, 2023 Author Share Posted September 26, 2023 (edited) Day 20 - Monday (yesterday) Summary: Cooked a great meal yesterday for my wife. To get in the spirit of Autumn, I bought a ready-to-bake stuffed pork loin and a butternut squash. I chopped the latter into cubes and roasted but the it yielded so much that it almost took longer than the pork to roast! It was a great meal though. I also got back to exercising after resting my shoulder last week. I started with my lower body. It felt great to resume, but man my legs were tired! I'm happy that I was able to fuel my body better today. I was very good about eating - except breakfast. I skipped breakfast but had a mid-morning shake/edamame, lunch, an afternoon shake, dinner, and cottage cheese before bed. It was certainly at least double what I ate the day before. My sleep is getting better. I was using Alarmy to get me out of bed, but it's so intense that I believe it wakes me up during deep sleep and then I end up feeling very tired. This time I tried Sleep Cycle, which purportedly wakes you up during a light phase of sleep. I think it helped, though I'm still tired this morning. It could just be that I need more sleep or that my sleep wasn't restful enough. I'm not sure if the cottage cheese before bed disturbed my sleep or if it's unrelated; I wanted to ensure that I had some fuel overnight for my body to rebuild. I'll keep tracking since the app shows data and I can take sleep notes. I'm also doing my sleep journal in the morning, so that helps. There are ups and downs, but I feel that my life is improving. I wrote in my physical journal last night that we only have so much time here on Earth and I am tired of wasting it on meaningless content online that doesn't improve or edify me in any way. I am determined to defeat this and emerge from my 90-day journey a changed man. I can already see it, only 20 days in (well, 30-ish for YouTube, but still). In fact, I even inspired my wife who last night asked me if I could block YouTube on her phone like she did for me! She has always been much better than me about moderation online, but she told me she was starting to watch a bit more than she wanted to and would like me to set a screen-time pass code on her phone. Now we hold the keys to each other's YouTube access. I cannot advocate enough for blockers. At first it's hard but, eventually, you begin to forget about the content. In fact, if you read my journal entries up until now, you can see a dwindling focus on YouTube, streaming, etc. and increasingly a focus on what I am actively doing now instead. It's not that the activities and void-filling actions are perfect, but I've begun to shift from what I don't have to what I can do. I think that's huge. PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 34): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did very well. Listened to a podcast or two while exercising and once or twice in the house but mostly music after that. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 43): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Now that I cannot stream or watch passive entertainment, I hope to be more consistent. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Cooked a nice dinner and did Lower Body B workout. Read in bed to fall asleep. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Complete 3 Important Tasks: Adherence: ★★☆☆☆ Description: Something still isn't working here... I get some things done, the day sometimes slips away. I think it depends on the workday. Maybe I really need to focus on completing important tasks as focusing only on Next Actions doesn't always imply that. Plan: Workday, first thing choose your 3 important tasks. Continue to pay attention to scheduling your personal ones so you are more likely to remember and commit. Give yourself grace on what is considered priority because you need to account for shifting priorities throughout the day. Switch to completing 3 important things from your Next Actions list, in no particular order of priority. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Giving 5 stars because I adhered to the schedule and started to journal at 10pm. I included stretching in my routine, so I was in bed at 11:15, a little later than my goal of falling asleep, but it was worth it to stretch. I got 6 hours last night and will keep pushing to move the time back as needed to get the best sleep I can. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (can even try 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Didn't prepare meals ahead of time but I did adhere much closer to my ideal - skipped breakfast, ate lunch, had two shakes, ate dinner, and had cottage cheese before bed. Plan: Tonight, make some of the food you need for tomorrow/the week - breakfast stuff, shakes, and lunch. Set schedule. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Edited September 28, 2023 by FDRx7 Removed part about tea shop as I already did that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vee Posted September 26, 2023 Share Posted September 26, 2023 Looks like you're doing great! I'm tempted to mimic your 1-5 rating in my private journal, because plenty of things don't fit easily into yes/no. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 26, 2023 Author Share Posted September 26, 2023 Thanks! Sure, give it a shot! If it becomes burdensome, then of course drop it so that you will at least still journal. However, it’s mostly a lot of copy-paste even though it looks like a lot of writing. Just updates mostly to each one and tweaking the Plan portion as needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 27, 2023 Author Share Posted September 27, 2023 (edited) Day 21 - Tuesday Summary: Not a huge update for today. Work went better than I thought, as I had a great conversation getting to know a key stakeholder on our project. I worked out my upper body, walked the dog with my wife, made us some dinner, and now the day is over. It went fast today for some reason! I adhered to my eating schedule, which was huge. I feel much better having eaten consistently throughout the day. Now I'm hoping to continue this behavior; I'm sure there will be some peaks and valleys, but I'm determined to fix this like all the other things. I'm feeling such a great transformation from this journey, I want to keep pushing. The graphs are trending in the right direction... PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 35): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did very well. Listened to a podcast or two while exercising and once or twice in the house. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 44): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Now that I cannot stream or watch passive entertainment, I hope to be more consistent. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Cooked a nice dinner and did Upper Body A workout. Planning to read in bed to fall asleep. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Complete 3 Important Tasks: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Completed about 2-3 important things, but I feel it was a good day with some productive planning/conversations with the client, hence the four stars. I'm trying to get better here and I think making the effort to stay connected to my task list and the priorities of the day is helping. Still not able to complete any personal ones today. Plan: Workday, first thing choose your 3 important tasks. Continue to pay attention to scheduling your personal ones so you are more likely to remember and commit. Give yourself grace on what is considered priority because you need to account for shifting priorities throughout the day. Switch to completing 3 important things from your Next Actions list, in no particular order of priority. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Sat down to journal at 10pm. I'm doing Game Quitters tonight so I have a little more time in the morning, but I"m flexible on that. Planning to complete my nightly routine after this. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (can even try 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Ate every planned meal today (breakfast, snack 1, lunch, snack 2, dinner). Hoping to do the same tomorrow, I felt really good today. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.) List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Edited September 28, 2023 by FDRx7 Removed part about tea shop as I already did that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 28, 2023 Author Share Posted September 28, 2023 Day 22 - Wednesday (yesterday) Summary: Yesterday was another good day, although I feel like lately in the evenings I have had less time for hobbies. Part of that is probably because I'm finally starting to get ready for bed at a reasonable hour. And that's okay, I really do need to sleep. Still, I've been doing a lot of cooking this week and walking the dog, both of which I've classified as hobbies. Additionally, now that I've started eating better, my workouts feel a bit more purposeful; I finally feel I'm providing my body with the fuel it needs to repair and build. I switched up the Top 3 goal again to just be "Next Actions List" because I feel I'm putting too much restraint on how I go about determining priorities for the day and what constittutes success. My Next Actions list is the lifeblood of my work, and if I'm not staying close to that and keeping it up to date, I can't trust the system - and I won't know what I should be working on. So I'm focusing less on the number of things and more on making it a consistent habit to work closely with this list, both personally and professionally. I was a bit distracted today because I received a possible job offer for a position I've been interested in for a long time. I'm not sure if it will go through yet because I still need to interview, but I will pursue it to the fullest. I wrote about this in @Vee's journal yesterday, but I mentioned how we are hard-wired to resist change. Well, if I'm honest, I'm somewhat afraid that I'll get the new position. I'm used to my current routine, coworkers, type of work, etc. I will not let it stop me as this might be the only time this opportunity ever comes my way. So, I'm going to let myself feel that fear and move forward anyways. I know that my current employer would welcome me back if things didn't work out, as I have a good reputation there. Adding a new gratitude section. Gratitude: - Time I was able to spend with my wife since she has been on nights lately - A possible career opportunity to do something new that I've always been interested in - The ability to move, be healthy, stretch, use my muscles, and walk outside with my dog PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 36): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did well. Listened to two that I was interested in. I listened to the second one while doing some mindless things for work which, was fine, but I'm not sure I still want to do that as even though it was mindless, I could still feel this slight push/pull between the two for my attention. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 45): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Yesterday was a rest day on my workout schedule, but I took the dog for a walk. I also made a quick dinner from last night's leftovers. Didn't have a ton of time for anything else yesterday - I guess that's just how it all shook out. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: I know I keep changing this... but I need to find something that works. I think the 3 items is too arbitrary for me because this varies from day to day on what is important/what I have time for. I think the best thing to do is focus on working closely with my next actions list. When I lose track of that, I lose track of how many/what I should be doing that day. So I'm going to take a step back from the number and focus more on the list again. Yesterday I did do some important tasks but would like to work closer to the next actions list. So, I'm giving three stars for a moderate success. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Sat down to journal at 9:45pm. I was in bed by 11:04pm and fell asleep by around 11:40, so my sleep is getting better I got about 6.5 hours last night and I'm feeling more rested. Once I am able to fall asleep sooner after getting in bed, I should be able to hit that 7 hours. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Again, ate every planned meal (breakfast, snack 1, lunch, snack 2, dinner). I think my body is still getting used to the higher protein intake but it's good. I think I'll give it a few more days to a week and then I'll begin scoring. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.) List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 29, 2023 Author Share Posted September 29, 2023 (edited) Day 23 - Thursday (yesterday) Summary: Relatively good day yesterday, but I didn't feel as productive as I could have been. I worked from my next actions list but felt like I just wasn't getting anything to a "completed" state. I talked it over with my therapist and I think that I'm just used to being pulled in multiple directions at any time by people and tasks. I wasn't always like this, but it seems more common recently. I also used to leave my phone downstairs to act like a home phone (not sure who remembers, but I wanted my phone to be like the cordless ones back in the day with the dock). That way it had its home during the day, but I can still take it with me when needed. I started taking it up with me to my office again and I think it has been distracting me. I'll put it back in the dock today. I also mentioned to her how I feel I have trouble focusing on conversations with people, even when I am intentionally speaking with them and interested in what they have to say. We came to the conclusion that it is possible I have trained myself to not listen to people due to remote work. I can sit in a meeting and do two other things, meaning I'm not giving 100% attention to the person in front of me. I think that makes sense. So, I've resolved now to go into meetings giving it my undivided attention, even if I believe the meeting is meaningless. I can't afford to not pay attention when it matters, so I need to use every instance to retrain my focus. She also told me that while it's good I am focused on fixing things, I should take time to celebrate where I've been. That's a good idea. While I do write on here about progress, I should take a good look at those 5 stars and the data. I'm really happy with the way things are trending. The average is starting to flatten out, and the moving average has broken the 4 stars line (today's MA is 4.137). The bad habits are consistently waning, and the good ones are slowly taking their places. Bedtime has been a struggle since about March, and now I feel it's finally moving in the right direction. Even my eating habits have been poor but are now starting to correct themselves. I passed the 45-day mark for no alcohol and am nearing a similar one for YouTube. Overall, I have made so much progress in just 23 days. She's right, it's good to celebrate this. It energizes me and gets me excited about the possibilities awaiting me throughout the rest of this 90-day journey. And why stop at 90 days? Progress and improvement do not need to end there. Indeed, the goal is sustained, progressive change. I believe in that future and am excited to watch my transformation on the way there. Gratitude: - For all the progress I have made up to this point - Starting this Friday morning with the sun streaming through the window - My wife and my dog, for all the joy they bring to my life PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 37) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Still five stars, though bordering on four. I think I was getting a little close to listening more than I wanted to yesterday, but I was able to notice when I was feeling this way and shut it off. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 46) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Did Lower Body Workout A, walked the dog, cooked a simple dinner. Four stars because I read some dumb stuff on my phone and got distracted which made me a little late for bed. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Worked off of my next actions list in the morning but felt I had a hard time concentrating during the day, so I think I could have done better with more focus. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Started journaling around 10:10pm. I journaled for a long time! However, because of my distraction on my phone like I mentioned above, I didn't do a full nighttime routine. Just the necessities and got in bed around 11:40. So, 4 stars for still getting up there and going to bed, but need to be careful of my phone. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Again, ate every planned meal (breakfast, snack 1, lunch, snack 2, dinner). My weight seems roughly the same but I believe it can take up to two weeks for the body to adjust to new levels of caloric intake. I'll monitor the average and adjust as needed. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.) List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Edited September 29, 2023 by FDRx7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vee Posted September 29, 2023 Share Posted September 29, 2023 8 hours ago, FDRx7 said: She also told me that while it's good I am focused on fixing things, I should take time to celebrate where I've been. That's a good idea. While I do write on here about progress, I should take a good look at those 5 stars and the data. I'm really happy with the way things are trending. The average is starting to flatten out, and the moving average has broken the 4 stars line (today's MA is 4.137). The bad habits are consistently waning, and the good ones are slowly taking their places. Bedtime has been a struggle since about March, and now I feel it's finally moving in the right direction. Even my eating habits have been poor but are now starting to correct themselves. I passed the 45-day mark for no alcohol and am nearing a similar one for YouTube. Overall, I have made so much progress in just 23 days. She's right, it's good to celebrate this. It energizes me and gets me excited about the possibilities awaiting me throughout the rest of this 90-day journey. And why stop at 90 days? Progress and improvement do not need to end there. Indeed, the goal is sustained, progressive change. I believe in that future and am excited to watch my transformation on the way there. You've been doing brilliantly! I think when you add new habits in, it's easy to focus on your struggles with those, rather than the more consistent adherence to older habits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted September 30, 2023 Author Share Posted September 30, 2023 Day 24 - Friday (yesterday) Summary: I got a fair amount done for work yesterday. The day went by so quickly. It didn't feel incredibly busy, just one that made me think, "Where'd the time go?" I am feeling really good exercising, now that I continue to provide my body with the right fuel. While I am sore (it's always tough the week coming back after a small break), I feel now that my body can sufficiently repair itself. I did manage to make it to bed, but I had a strange incident. I don't normally remember my dreams, but I experienced four of them at different times in the night. And they were all nightmares. The first one was a supernatural one that took place in the same room I was sleeping in. I didn't notice the transition from wake to sleep, so it felt incredibly real until I woke up, my heart beating out of my chest. I gave myself permission to put on a podcast simply so that I could hear a voice because I was so terrified. I don't know what I ate to have all that happen... but I did get enough sleep, so there's that! I'm glad to see that the valleys in my charts have become much shallower. Soon I'll start scoring my diet adherence, but I still need to see how it plays out over a number of days/settings to ensure I understand what helps with consistency. Gratitude: - For my work, that I have a consistent income to support me - For tea and coffee, providing me such a simple pleasure throughout the day - For all the things that make Autumn such a wonderful time of year - cider, pumpkins, bright sunlight on the leaves against a steel sky backdrop... PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 38) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Listened a bit more than I would have liked, although the nightmare incident in my summary does not contribute to the score. I think that's a bit of an exception... Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 47) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Completed! It was a small entry just to stay in the habit, but I did it nonetheless. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Did Upper Body Workout B, walked the dog, cooked pizza (still learning, didn't quite come out like I had hoped but still good). Four stars because I sorta lazed about at the end of the evening. That could be okay and I was listening to a podcast, giving it my sole attention. Yet, I kind of wish I had spent the time differently. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: I did my best to work off the next actions list. I would say that even though I worked on some other things outside of that, they were important. I feel I got a fair amount done yesterday. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Got my journal done just under the wire and went to bed later. This is okay on the weekend except I was so tired I didn't finish my full nightly routine. Still, I made it to bed and got a good 8ish hours (despite the nightmares). Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Again, ate every planned meal (breakfast, snack 1, lunch, snack 2, dinner). Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.) List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 1, 2023 Author Share Posted October 1, 2023 Day 25 - Saturday (yesterday) Summary: I got a late start yesterday, but it's alright. I like to let myself sleep in a bit on the weekends as it seems sometimes, I need the recovery. My weight has been the exact same over the last three days which makes me think my body is starting to understand the changes taking place. I remember the last time I was serious about my diet, there was this strange period where my body settles at a certain weight for around a week before either increasing or decreasing. It's some sort of pause to reassess the change in caloric intake. Quite interesting. I went to the record store for the final day of their sale before moving. I stocked up again on classical and a bunch of other random things for only $5. Pretty sweet deal. Now I have to clean and organize them all! I did game a bit with friends yesterday and I logged off at a relatively reasonable hour. However, I logged off because another one of my friends said he was tired and going to get off. I then did the same. This is not gaming specific. I feel like I am never the first one to leave a gathering, party, gaming session, or anything like where people are gathered together - even if I feel like I should. I don't know if it's because I don't want to disappoint other people or because I'm having a good time and don't want the good times to stop (could be both). Something I need to be more introspective about because I need to be more independent in choosing to manage my own time. I'll start to keep track of it mentally and see when it comes about and what my true motivation is. Gratitude: - For my medication and how it has contributed to a better experience of life - For my record hobby and the nice deals I was able to come across over the last few weeks - For the ability to purchase enough food to sustain myself and my family PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 39) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Pretty decent day yesterday of not listening excessively. Plan: Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did game yesterday but only for a couple of hours with friends. I think that brings the total to like 3.5 hours for the week or something. Nothing huge. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 48) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Explored a new mocktail. Wasn't my favorite but at least I tried. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Despite it being late last night, I wrote a fairly long entry. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Had a late start to the day but that's alright. I like to take time to recuperate on the weekends. Went to the record store and got another box of records for $5 (since it was their last weekend of the sale before moving). Made a mocktail (twice, but both times I didn't like it - experimenting though). Made fresh ginger juice after figuring out how to use the juicer. Did a bit of gaming with a few friends. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Giving three stars because it's the weekend and I did some things I wanted to. However, it's also a good time to get some personal "next actions" done and I didn't really do any of those. So, just a moderate score for today. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Got my journal done but did not complete the rest of my nighttime routine since I was so tired. Still made it to bed and got a long sleep. My body feels less sore from the exercise, so it must be repairing itself well. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Weekends can have a bit more leeway. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Didn't eat as much as I should have because I was out of my routine. I stayed out shopping for records for a while, so that threw things off. I think when I go out places, I'll need to prepare a few things to bring with me (that will not perish in the car). Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.). If you know you'll be out a while, prepare some things to take with you. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Mocktails Writing on my blog (need to restart) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 2, 2023 Author Share Posted October 2, 2023 Day 26 - Sunday (yesterday) Summary: I spent pretty much the whole day with my wife yesterday. Since her residency takes up much of her time, we like to spend her off days together as much as possible. We went to a park where there is a Japanese garden, a large pond that looks almost like a river from certain angles, and plenty of trees along the path. The trees are just starting to change color. I've noticed I do a lot of thinking about the past. It doesn't take much to make me nostalgic. I'm working on snapping out of this because, while some nostalgia is good, too much makes me miss what is right in front of me. I also let too many unrelated neutral and negative things occupy my brain space. We only have so much attention and there are very few negative things you encounter during the day that are worth having an opinion on or thinking about. I want to wisely choose where my attention is directed. This also goes for listening to podcasts, viewing media, etc. Discretion in attention is a key skill I wish to develop. The data is interesting. I don't know if it will stay this way, but the habits are settling into a frequency. I'm thinking of it like when a metal object is hit and produces all kinds of noise but then slowly settles out to its resonant frequency. I'm not a physicist but I hope you understand my analogy. It's almost like my life was punctuated by this major choice to shift all these behaviors and, 20 days in, it has started to settle into its "resonant frequency." 4 stars makes sense. Of course, I want everything to be 5 all the time, but let's face it - I'm human. There is no perfection for us, so tolerating some fluctuations is par for the course. This doesn't mean I will not continue striving, only that I seek to minimize the dips where possible while understanding they will occur. Gratitude: - For time spent with my wife yesterday - For a nice cozy evening reading scary stories - For the wonderful people who surround in me in my life - friends, family... PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 40) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Listened a little bit too much close to bed and as I was sitting in bed. Fell asleep listening to something which I believe somewhat disturbed my sleep. Plan: Set strict rule of no listening to podcasts in bed. Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game yesterday. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 49) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Made a raspberry syrup from scratch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Mocktails: Created raspberry syrup from scratch Reading: Read two horror stories by Algernon Blackwood to welcome October Dog walking: Wife and I took the dog to a nearby park for a nice long walk together Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Giving five stars because the day was spent with my wife. It was her only day off this week so it was the most important "next action" I could be doing 🙂 . Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Got ready for bed on time and completed my nighttime routine but listened to a podcast as I fell asleep. I think it disrupted my sleep to some extent, so I won't be doing that anymore. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Weekends can have a bit more leeway. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Ate a little bit better than yesterday but not as consistent as I was during the week. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.). If you know you'll be out a while, prepare some things to take with you. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Mocktails Writing on my blog (need to restart) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 3, 2023 Author Share Posted October 3, 2023 Day 27 - Monday(yesterday) Summary: Woohoo! Another 5 star day. It's funny that the feeling and the reality can differ. It didn't feel like a 5-star day but looking at my habits and what I accomplished, it certainly was. I applied to that job I mentioned a few posts back, now that it went live. I'm very nervous because I am afraid of both getting and not getting it. If I get it, I hope that I will be able to perform well - and that I will like it overall. I will be sad to leave some of the coworkers who truly seem to care about me. On the other hand, if I don't get it, I may feel trapped in this current job. It isn't the worst, but I feel it could be much better. I suppose I could look at the positives, too. If I get it, I have a new opportunity to try something I have wanted to do for years. It's a chance to grow, foster new skills, and break away from my current working world. If I don't get it, I am at least doing very well where I am and have a good reputation. My colleagues like me and I like most of them. So, it will be what it will be. On another note, I feel I'm running out of time in the afternoons and my workout sometimes interferes with work, life, etc. So, I'm determined to become a morning workout person. I began today, starting my workout at around 6:15. I think it's going to be a tough habit to start, but I'm determined to do this just like I did for everything else so far. I'll need to be patient with myself as I engrain this behavior until it becomes natural. It wasn't so bad this morning once I got warmed up. I'll need to keep moving my schedule back until I can hit 5am. That will let me finish by around 6:30 and still have time for a morning routine. Gratitude: - For getting up this morning to workout - For this extended nice weather - For being kind to myself when I catch my attention drifting to negative/irrelevant thoughts PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 41) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Would say I listened a moderate amount but nothing too crazy. Listened while exercising. Turned on light music to read to in bed. Plan: Set strict rule of no listening to podcasts in bed. Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game yesterday. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 50) Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Exercise: Lower Body A Dog walking: Wife and I took the dog for a walk Other: Applied to the job opportunity! Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Tried to work closely with Next Actions, but got some important things done yesterday, especially applying to the job opportunity that has come my way. I was happy to have that done. Now I wait and see... Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: I got into bed later than I normally would but I'm granting an exception here because I was finishing the job application. It was important I do that immediately. Besides, it wasn't too much later. Started journaling around 10:20 and finished close to 10:40. Was asleep a bit before midnight. Still completed my nighttime routine, too (with a modified stretching routine instead of the normal one). Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Weekends can have a bit more leeway. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Ate every meal as planned. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.). If you know you'll be out a while, prepare some things to take with you. List of Hobbies I can choose from ( I will continue expanding this as I rediscover old hobbies and find new ones ) Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Mocktails Writing on my blog (need to restart) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNewMe2.0 Posted October 3, 2023 Share Posted October 3, 2023 Hey this is really cool. Also you're doing so good getting up at 6am moving towards 5am. Very inspiring. I've been a morning workout person for a couple years now. But I always just get up at 7am and I got a job that starts around 10-6pm so I can workout later in the morning. Heh. I'd love to get up earlier and will push myself to make it happen at my goal time of 645am. 🙂 It's so much nicer when the gyms empty S2. No lines for anything. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 4, 2023 Author Share Posted October 4, 2023 (edited) Day 28 - Tuesday (yesterday) Summary: Pretty good day yesterday. Fairly busy and felt like the evening arrived quickly. I did a better job today on my walk trying to be in the moment, redirecting my thoughts to what I'm experiencing and not problems at work or other thoughts. I did manage to workout yesterday morning and I want to continue that habit. I stretched this morning since it is my off day, hoping that the routine of stretching will help solidify the connection with waking up and going into the home gym. I woke up later than I wanted to but earlier than I ever did in the past, so that's a partial win. I want to start tracking this, but I'm hesitant to add too many new things right now because I want to ensure I have the foundational habits down. Still, this one could be considered foundational. I don't know, I'll see how I feel. I'm conscious that I've overloaded myself in the past by trying to change too many things at once, though this time around it seems to be working. Gratitude: For getting up again and stretching For more sunny, warm weather For the gradual, positive shift in my mindset and outlook since the start of this journey PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 42): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did well and knew when to shut if off. Listened while exercising and a bit during the day. Tried to listen to one I really enjoy while doing something mindless for work, but it wasn't going well, so I shut it off. Plan: Set strict rule of no listening to podcasts in bed. Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game yesterday. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 51): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. I want to try and establish it as a pattern before bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Exercise: Upper Body A Dog walking Mocktails: Made fresh pineapple juice with the juicer. Planning to make pineapple syrup as well. Other: Need to fix something on the job app last night, but the recruiter is in contact with me. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Worked within my task system and got a lot done for the day. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: While I did go to be later than I wanted to, I was again working on something important. I needed to fix something in the job app I submitted and was only made aware of the issue late in the evening. I didn't get up right away at my alarm this morning, though. I don't want to let myself slide too much so giving 4 stars. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Weekends can have a bit more leeway. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Ate every meal as planned. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.). If you know you'll be out a while, prepare some things to take with you. List of Hobbies I can choose from: Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Mocktails Writing on my blog (need to restart) Edited October 4, 2023 by FDRx7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 5, 2023 Author Share Posted October 5, 2023 (edited) Day 29 - Wednesday Summary: Decent day on paper but in my mind, I felt very disorganized. I was working off my task list, doing all the right things, focusing with music... but I just felt at times that I couldn't get a grip on what I needed to do. I don't know if I've entered some strange adjustment period, but my wife was feeling the same, as she recently started a detox from the internet. She said she's felt a bit less on top of things. Is there some kind of change that takes place where you are temporarily less organized as your brain rewires? Is it because I'm used to constant stimulation? I really don't know... I'm just hoping it passes soon because it's been about a week or so of feeling that way. It's incredibly frustrating, especially because I remember how organized and productive I was before. Gratitude: For an early night and my body beginning to feel tired at the right time For my phone interview on Monday with a recruiter from the job opportunity For my dog, who brings me much joy, laughs, and comfort when I'm stressed (even if I stress her out with all my hugs - she's a trooper) For another 5-star day, even if inside I felt frustrated; my behavior is still moving in the right direction PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 43): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did a bit of a podcast cleanse today and unsubscribed from a bunch I don't care about. Not sure how many I will resubscribe to. But did well only listening to two podcasts that I like. Plan: Set strict rule of no listening to podcasts in bed. Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 52): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Made pineapple syrup. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Completed! Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Exercise: Stretching Dog walking Mocktails: Made pineapple syrup. Relationships: Ate dinner with my wife. Did end up with some time where I scrolled my phone a bit, but it was only a small portion of my time (maybe 30 min). Worked really burned me out today so I gave myself some grace there. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Worked within the task system as planned and stuck close to it, but felt very disorganized still. I think it had more to do with my focus today, as the disorganization felt like it was in my head. Something was just off. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Started journaling at around 9:15 which gave me time to do Game Quitters, too. I may just go to be earlier in the future and do GQ in the morning to give myself more time to rest (especially since I want to wake up early to exercise). Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Weekends can have a bit more leeway. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Ate every meal as planned though the timing was a bit off. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.). If you know you'll be out a while, prepare some things to take with you. List of Hobbies I can choose from: Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Mocktails Writing on my blog (need to restart) Edited October 5, 2023 by FDRx7 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 6, 2023 Author Share Posted October 6, 2023 Day 30 - Thursday (yesterday) Summary: Tired today. Yesterday (Thursday) my wife and I drove to see some friends who had come from out of town. It was 2 hours roundtrip so including the time visiting with them, we arrived home quite late. That threw my routine off a bit as I didn't get to bed like I should have or journal. The rest of the day was good though and I've added a new habit for cleaning. I feel like this is something that took a backseat when I was invested in my YouTube habit. I neglected to clean things around the house despite having a plan. Yesterday it just hit me... I looked around and realized how untidy everything was (not terrible, but enough to stress me out). I tidied up then and there and cleaned a bit. My goal is to make this a sustainable, daily habit where I find something that is dirty and clean it. A little every day will keep the house very clean. My wife also helps, but she is so busy in residency that I need to pitch in a little more to ease her burden. I know it stresses her to see a mess too and I want to make sure she comes home to a clean house. Also... it's Day 30!! I'm now officially 1/3 of the way through. Tomorrow will be day 45 without YouTube, so halfway there on that one. Very cool. Time is flying. I feel like I just started this journal yesterday. I think I will continue journaling past day 90 as this really helps me to stay accountable and on track. Still, it's very cool to celebrate this 1/3 milestone. Gratitude: For starting to clean daily and the feeling of calm it brings For a home that makes me feel comfortable, relaxed, and happy For 30 days in on my journey, almost 45 on YouTube, and all the progress I've made so far PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 44): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: While I was good about not listening to it at work, I feel like I listened a little more than I wanted to. I started to feel myself get uncomfortable and yet didn't quite stop. I wouldn't call it an excessive amount but it was also more than my body wanted. Plan: Set strict rule of no listening to podcasts in bed. Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 53): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Went out with friends to a restaurant and didn't have any alcohol. Still had a great time! Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆ Description: Didn't get a chance to journal. I got home late and planned to do it but fell asleep. I definitely could have still done it though. I'm thinking of making up for it with a quick entry this morning. If I do, I'll come back and change this to 2-3 stars. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Exercise: Lower Body B Relationships: My wife and I drove over an hour one way to see two friends from out of town. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Worked with task system, scheduled things as necessary and did my best to stay focused. Even blocked Spotify at one point to using the Freedom app to keep me from being tempted to listen to too many podcasts. I think I'm going to start doing that even for non-work related activities. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★☆☆☆ Description: Partial score because last night we drove 2 hours roundtrip to see two friends and, including time at dinner, we didn't get back until later than my bedtime, so can't really be faulted for that as this was important to us. The 3 empty stars are because I decided to sit on the couch when I got home and fell asleep. Thus, I wasn't in bed and I didn't complete my nighttime routine. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Weekends can have a bit more leeway. Cleaning Up: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: New habit. I have a list of things to clean in the house and feel like it would seem less burdensome if I did a little every day. With a little inspiration from @Vee, this one I'm going to have a rough definition for scoring. 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-3 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 4 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. 5 stars is I cleaned two things AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter. Started off strong yesterday by tidying up a lot around the house and cleaning the kitchen counter. Note: Dishes do NOT count. They should be done regardless. These cleaning items are other tasks that are easier to forget about (dusting, cleaning the couch, etc.). Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-3 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 4 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. 5 stars is I cleaned two things AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Ate most meals, though missed my afternoon protein shake. Not sure when I'm ready to score this one yet. I've been doing okay but I'm afraid to add the pressure of the score to it, so I'm going to continue as I have for the time being. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.). If you know you'll be out a while, prepare some things to take with you. List of Hobbies I can choose from: Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Mocktails Writing on my blog (need to restart) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 7, 2023 Author Share Posted October 7, 2023 (edited) Day 31 - Friday (yesterday) Summary: Another big milestone today - 45 days without YouTube! Halfway through the 90 days. I honestly don't want it back anymore. I'm so much happier without it. I think the only thing is whether I should unblock it once this is over so that I can watch educational videos when I need to (i.e. fixing something on my car, how-tos, etc.). However, that doesn't happen very often, so it might be okay to just stay the course and have my wife unlock it only when necessary. I like how it's going so far. I think that's what I'll do. Had a decent day yesterday. I like the cleaning habit. I want to try and keep it up. It makes me feel better to look around and see that the house is clean. It's possible sweeping the floor, as small as that is, improved my allergies. I didn't wake up as stuffy as I usually do. I have one of those Boogie Boards from my college days. The board has a slot where you can insert any 8x11 sheet. Thus, you can make whatever you want and then write over top of it. It's an electronic whiteboard, basically. I'm planning to create a template based on my current list of items to maintain and the date it was last completed. That way I can see what tasks haven't been done in a while, especially those that are not immediately visible. I find myself falling back slightly into my old habit of listening to podcasts I don't care about just to have background noise. While I didn't do this at work, I really should try to acclimate myself to periods of silence. Part of the problem is even though I cleaned out my podcast list, Spotify still shows me the list of old shows I used to follow and when they upload new content. Kind of annoying... if I unsubscribed, then don't show them to me? It's almost like unsubscribing from YouTube channels and having them still show up in your recommended content - except you can't "reset" Spotify's algorithm like you can YouTube's. Very frustrating. I guess I'll have to just continue to ignore them until they eventually go away from not listening to them. I really should make use of Freedom too when I want to stop listening. Today I have a wedding to go to. Should be fun. Gratitude: For the nice pizza I made last night Why: It's increasing my cooking skills and making me more confident in my ability to see something and make it. It is helping me to order out less and save money. For my friends Why: While at a distance, they make me laugh and are people who I know have my best interests in mind (even if we don't always agree). Being around them challenges me and ultimately makes me a better person. For 45 days without YouTube Why: It has started to clear my mind, I have rediscovered old hobbies, and it has given me the space to improve my life. I've made great progress in just this short period, and I anticipate further growth, well-being, productivity, peace of mind, and clarity of thought. PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 45): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Not bad but starting to fall into the trap again of listening just to have background. I'm noticing I'm listening to some podcasts that I just don't care that much about. I'm glad I am catching the behavior. Plan: Set strict rule of no listening to podcasts in bed. Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 54): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Tried some non-alcoholic wine. It was... fine. I think I might prefer the mocktails, but I'll try some other brands. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Fell asleep again and didn't journal last night but I did do one this morning to make up for it. Decent entry, so giving 3 stars for at least trying to remain in the journal. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Exercise: Upper Body B Cooking: Made a quick pizza from scratch. Walked the dog Did end up reading a bit on my phone and nothing that interesting, so 4 stars. Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did well working within the task system and trying to work on what matters. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★☆☆ Description: Another partial score. I allowed myself to sleep on the couch because my wife was feeling a little ill from work. I wanted her to get an uninterrupted sleep to recover (she's feeling better today). However, I didn't do my nighttime routine, which I still could have done. Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Weekends can have a bit more leeway. Cleaning Up: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Swept the floor, dusted the table and piano, wiped down some of the counters, tidied up as I did things during the day. Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-3 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 4 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. 5 stars is I cleaned two things AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Ate most meals but missed breakfast. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.). If you know you'll be out a while, prepare some things to take with you. List of Hobbies I can choose from: Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Mocktails Writing on my blog (need to restart) Edited October 7, 2023 by FDRx7 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikar Posted October 7, 2023 Share Posted October 7, 2023 I like the graphs and scores! It's been a long time since I stopped journaling every day, but I always evaluate and "score" things once a month and once a year. I don't normally go back to my monthly reports, but I believe it's always in the back of my mind, helping me to be grounded and to have some perspective. I noticed you also have a "no drinking" streak. I can relate to being in a pub with friends, wanting to have something good to drink... I think I would have stopped drinking regular beer altogether, if pubs had draft non-alcoholic beer. They normally don't and all the alternatives are kinda sucky: drinking sodas hurts my teeth and buying bottled non-alcoholic beer or water for 2x-4x the price in a shop just makes me want to invite my friends to a picnic or to my flat 😄 Regardless, I noticed that even having/not having one beer has an effect on me. I don't know when I've become so sensitive, but I can feel it. That's why I have a beer maybe two times a month now and I prefer to grab the non-alcoholic/radler one whenever I'm in the mood for it at home. I also love tea as you do! I think the average is above a liter a day for me. I prefer a strong black tea, but I also got some green tea to change things up. I normally use the same teabag two or three times during the day, as I intentionally want to make the tea weaker; I'm not sure if it's too healthy to take in so much of it and it's also just about the ritual. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 8, 2023 Author Share Posted October 8, 2023 (edited) On 10/7/2023 at 12:01 PM, Ikar said: I like the graphs and scores! It's been a long time since I stopped journaling every day, but I always evaluate and "score" things once a month and once a year. I don't normally go back to my monthly reports, but I believe it's always in the back of my mind, helping me to be grounded and to have some perspective. Thanks! I think I like the “gamification” aspect of the measurements. It keeps me motivated to improve the scores, whether that is through doing better in general or redefining what success means (ex. Next Actions has changed a lot because it is a bit difficult to define what constitutes success there, and that’s okay; I’ll continue refining it until I understand what I need). On 10/7/2023 at 12:01 PM, Ikar said: I noticed you also have a "no drinking" streak. I can relate to being in a pub with friends, wanting to have something good to drink... I think I would have stopped drinking regular beer altogether, if pubs had draft non-alcoholic beer. They normally don't and all the alternatives are kinda sucky: drinking sodas hurts my teeth and buying bottled non-alcoholic beer or water for 2x-4x the price in a shop just makes me want to invite my friends to a picnic or to my flat 😄 Regardless, I noticed that even having/not having one beer has an effect on me. I don't know when I've become so sensitive, but I can feel it. That's why I have a beer maybe two times a month now and I prefer to grab the non-alcoholic/radler one whenever I'm in the mood for it at home. Yeah, I wanted to redefine my relationship with alcohol. I wasn’t dependent on it, but also felt I drank well above what is the recommended limit. I do feel much better, and I wake up with much less anxiety; my mood has significantly improved upon rising. Whenever I gathered with friends, I would drink the whole night (and they sorta did too) because I believed that I would no longer have fun if I stopped drinking. I think this was a subconscious thought that, after digging, I was able to bring to the surface. Twice now on this journey, I have proven to myself that I can have a great time and consume no alcohol. This allows me to redefine my limits. Moving forward, I know I can have one or two at a gathering, then stop, and still have an amazing time. I think this was a subtle but powerful experience for me. I am nervous though about how it will affect me after this long of a break. I will ease back into it with one drink at home with my wife once the 90 days are up and see what happens. I do like the non-alcoholic beers, actually! But you are right, they are somewhat expensive…. I tried some non-alcoholic wine but it misses the depth of regular wine. The mocktails are quite good, though they require more effort (but that’s also part of the fun). On 10/7/2023 at 12:01 PM, Ikar said: I also love tea as you do! I think the average is above a liter a day for me. I prefer a strong black tea, but I also got some green tea to change things up. I normally use the same teabag two or three times during the day, as I intentionally want to make the tea weaker; I'm not sure if it's too healthy to take in so much of it and it's also just about the ritual. I think it’s less about the tea and more the caffeine. Tea is quite healthy, so I imagine the limit would surround how much caffeinated tea you can tolerate. I used to drink a ton of tea when I was younger. In school, I would bring a liter of tea in one of those pop-top thermoses. My teacher asked once if anyone smelled a campfire when I brought in some Lapsang Suchong 😂. I want to get back into it. I would like to try Gong Fu style, where you steep the tea briefly but as many as nine times, trying each cup. It’s supposedly a great way to taste how the flavor develops over time while also being a fun social activity. Some of my most recent favorites I’ve tried are Hojicha (green) and Quangzhou Milk (oolong). The latter truly does have a naturally milky smell, flavor, and texture! Absolutely wild how it’s just a byproduct of the processing. Edited October 8, 2023 by FDRx7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikar Posted October 8, 2023 Share Posted October 8, 2023 3 hours ago, FDRx7 said: Thanks! I think I like the “gamification” aspect of the measurements. It keeps me motivated to improve the scores, whether that is through doing better in general or redefining what success means (ex. Next Actions has changed a lot because it is a bit difficult to define what constitutes success there, and that’s okay; I’ll continue refining it until I understand what I need). I saw the following in the journals somewhere and also in a book; many things are defined as habits rather than goals. My "family" monthly section hardly ever has any specific goals I could tick off, so I have "directions" there rather than "goals". I still think I can do better defining longer-term goals, as some things just take months to complete. 4 hours ago, FDRx7 said: Yeah, I wanted to redefine my relationship with alcohol. I wasn’t dependent on it, but also felt I drank well above what is the recommended limit. I do feel much better, and I wake up with much less anxiety; my mood has significantly improved upon rising. Whenever I gathered with friends, I would drink the whole night (and they sorta did too) because I believed that I would no longer have fun if I stopped drinking. I think this was a subconscious thought that, after digging, I was able to bring to the surface. Twice now on this journey, I have proven to myself that I can have a great time and consume no alcohol. This allows me to redefine my limits. Moving forward, I know I can have one or two at a gathering, then stop, and still have an amazing time. I think this was a subtle but powerful experience for me. In the dorm group (I lived at the dorm for about three and a half years and only moved this June), I go by the nick "Non-Alc" 😄 Anyhow, 2020 and 2021 were kinda special at the dorm. The pubs were closed due to corona, so the meetings obviously moved to the dorms themselves. But I gradually moved from consuming alcohol on a daily basis, simply due to the fact I had to be ready at 7 or 8 in the morning for my English lessons. The in-dorm partying/meeting stopped in autumn 2021, as the pubs opened again. I didn't feel like hitting the student's pub every other day was a good idea, plus I got a girlfriend at the start of 2022, so my consumption went down even more. I second the thought that meetings can be fun without alcohol. I have done it multiple times. My country (Czechia) is unfortunately known for cheap alcohol and I really believe we have an alcohol culture, without any exaggeration. Alcohol is a slow and vicious killer of whole communities; in my opinion, cocaine, meth or heroine are more merciful to the addict's family or friends in aggregate. 4 hours ago, FDRx7 said: I think it’s less about the tea and more the caffeine. Tea is quite healthy, so I imagine the limit would surround how much caffeinated tea you can tolerate. I used to drink a ton of tea when I was younger. In school, I would bring a liter of tea in one of those pop-top thermoses. My teacher asked once if anyone smelled a campfire when I brought in some Lapsang Suchong 😂. Sounds good! A bit of a shame that tea colors my teeth brown 😄 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FDRx7 Posted October 9, 2023 Author Share Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) Day 32 - Saturday (yesterday) Summary: Most of Saturday was spent getting ready for and being at my cousin's wedding. I'm glad I was able to go. I don't have a ton to update on this but I will say that I am seeing the value in trying to tidy up more. I had misplaced some things and got very flustered trying to get to the wedding. Some things were in their homes, but I looked right past them. When I get stressed for time, I often overlook things that are right in front of me. I also spent 15 minutes looking for my phone, which I had mindlessly set down in a very unobvious place. So, I think mindfulness is something for me to work on. It seems like I don't allow certain things to make it past the encoding stage of memory. I've got to be paying enough attention to let my actions register. Nice day though and had fun with my parents. Gratitude: For being able to attend my cousin's wedding Why: While we don't always get to see each other, he is an important person in my life. It made me very happy to see him and his new wife so happy together. I was glad to be there for such a pivotal moment in his life. For my parents Why: They always manage to make me laugh, and whenever I return to their house, I am flooded with the memories of the pleasant, happy childhood they gave me. I'm grateful for how they have opened their arms to my wife and treat her as their own daughter. For my cozy home and the Halloween decor Why: Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. The season surrounding it is such a pleasure, and I am so pleased with the way my wife and I have decorated the house. I can feel cozy Autumn with a touch of spooky vibes, and it makes me feel at ease while indulging in great memories. PROGRESS UPDATES: Habits to Kick: YouTube (Day 46): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: No changes needed but continue to fill the void, and with activities from hobbies list. Excessive Streaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not watch. Plan: Continue current behavior. Find new ways to spend time when you need passive entertainment. Add a tag to your task list to filter for those. Excessive Podcast Listening: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Didn't listen to any podcasts at all. Plan: Set strict rule of no listening to podcasts in bed. Continue to listen only to podcasts I am truly interested in. I will try to keep from listening to podcasts I've used just for background. If I need background, I can put on light jazz or Brain.FM while working. Be aware of the physical and emotional sensation and name it when you feel stressed. Excessive Gaming: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not game. Plan: Continue current behavior. Set a time limit if you do play by yourself (1-2 hours). If with friends, keep it only to a Friday or Saturday and do your best to log off at a reasonable hour. Excessive Drinking (Day 55): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Did not drink alcohol. Had tonic water and a soda at the wedding. Had a nice mocktail my mother made me after the wedding. Plan: Continue current behavior. Habits to Start: I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans. Journal (physical journal): Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Giving myself leeway here because it was an unusual night. However, I still wrote an entry in the morning to make up for the night before which worked out fine. Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Game Quitters Journal: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Filling it out now. Plan: Continue filling out journal each day. Doesn't seem to matter if it's the same day or the next, as long as each day is entered. Healthy Ways to Fill the Void: Adherence: ★★★★★ Description: Relationships: Went to my cousin's wedding and afterwards spent time with my wife and parents (watched a movie together). Plan: Continue routine and choose activities. Reading is good, but also being comfortable doing nothing while listening to music (or just sitting) is fine too. Plan activities for when you have low energy. Next Actions List: Adherence: No data Description: Being another unusual day, there wasn't much to track here. Plan: Focus on staying close to your next actions list. Consistently working from this is going to help you stay on track. Consistent Bedtime: Adherence: ★★★★☆ Description: Spent the evening with my wife and parents, so I stayed up a little later but was still in bed before or by midnight. Also did some of my nighttime routine (did not stretch). Plan: Continue to start getting ready for bed at 10pm (or 9:45). This should include your time for journaling. Read your novel in bed. Push back the time as needed. Can always do an internet block on your phone around 10pm with Freedom to keep from browsing. Weekends can have a bit more leeway. Cleaning Up: Adherence: ★★☆☆☆ Description: Only did a little cleaning this day before going to the wedding. Just various tidying as I used stuff but nothing crazy. Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-3 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 4 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. 5 stars is I cleaned two things AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter. Eating Schedule: Adherence: No scoring yet Description: Eating schedule was off due to the wedding. Definitely didn't eat as much as I normally have been. Plan: Continue current behavior. Adjust meals as necessary (type, amount, timing, etc.). If you know you'll be out a while, prepare some things to take with you. List of Hobbies I can choose from: Listening to and/or caring for records Reading Writing (notes from reading, etc.) Working on my cars Socializing Foreign language study Cooking Walking the dog Mocktails Writing on my blog (need to restart) Investing in relationships Edited October 9, 2023 by FDRx7 Forgot to average in new cleaning habit. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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