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Posted (edited)

Day 62 - Monday

Summary:

Filling this entry out late, will try to get the one from yesterday done soon. Not much to write for this one. Pretty standard day both at work and home. Just got busy and didn't get a chance to complete this entry yesterday.

Gratitude:

  • For how much better I'm starting to feel now that I'm eating more.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 77:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 28:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 86:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink alcohol. Made myself a few mocktails.
    • 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. Set your timer to remind you.
  • Game Quitters Journal:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Filling out late...
    • 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:
      • Continued reading my novel.
      • Exercise: Lower Body A.
      • Mocktails: Made a couple mocktails to relax.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Completed 7 pomodoros.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Was able to go to bed. It was late and I had trouble falling asleep, but I was in my bed and able to complete part of my nighttime routine.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up because that worked in the past.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Tidied up and cleaned upstairs closet floor.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, Ace92 said:

Good to hear you're making great progress! Where are you getting those graphs from? They've piqued my interest.

Hey, thanks for the interest! I've just been making these graphs in Open Office (similar to Microsoft Excel). Each day I put my ratings in, update the graphs, and post screenshots of my progress. Here's a screenshot of a portion of the raw data:

image.thumb.png.0788f8f84c7bb20d5dd699cdaa818b80.png

It might look like a lot, but once the template was set up, it now only takes me a couple of minutes to update the charts. I may switch to a standard habit tracker after my 90 days are up, but this will at least help me to do a retrospective at the end of this part of the journey. I say this part because it's not all over once 90 days is up.

Edited by FDRx7
  • Like 2
Posted

Day 63 - Tuesday

Summary:

Went easy on my journaling and bedtime habits because I think I was feeling slightly under the weather in the evening. Fell asleep not long after sitting on the couch and slept for a very long time.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 78:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 29:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 87:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink alcohol. Made myself a few mocktails.
    • 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: No data
    • Description: Choosing not to record data here as I think I wasn't feeling too well and fell asleep very early.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • Game Quitters Journal:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Filling out late...
    • 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:
      • Continued reading my novel.
      • Exercise: Upper Body A.
      • Mocktails: Made a couple mocktails to relax.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Completed 8 pomodoros.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Going a bit easier on myself here because I think I wasn't feeling too good. I fell asleep very early and slept through the entire night. Not scoring good or bad for this one.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up because that worked in the past.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Tidied up only.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Posted (edited)

Day 64 - Wednesday (yesterday)

Summary:

Had a nice time yesterday evening with friends. My wife and I attended an early Thanksgiving celebration. We had a very pleasant time and, once again, I proved to myself that I could have fun at the party without consuming any alcohol. My 90 days for alcohol are up on Sunday (Day 91). My wife has taken this journey with me, so we will each have a drink that day to celebrate. One thing I need to do is determine how much I will allow myself to drink each week. Now that I have all these strategies and non-alcoholic drink options, I think I'd like to keep it to a minimum just for my own health. I'll be glad to have the flexibility and comfort of making the right choices both at home and out.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 79:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 30:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 88:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink alcohol. Made myself a few mocktails.
    • 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 not complete.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Continued reading my novel.
      • Socializing: When to a friend's place for an early Thanksgiving celebration.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Completed 6 pomodoros.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Made it up to bed. Had a lot of trouble sleeping though. I was awake for a long time. I might need to start taking melatonin again to reset my circadian rhythm.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up because that worked in the past.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Tidied up only.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
Had written incorrect pomodoros and was reflected on charts. Changed from 8 to 6.
Posted (edited)

Day 65 - Thursday (yesterday)

Summary:

In the evening, my wife and I watched a movie in the basement. We don't do that too often and it was actually a very fun way to spend time together. I think we'll do that more often now.

I was misreading my journal - today (Friday) is my 90th day without alcohol! My wife and I aren't going to celebrate until Sunday though, as that is her next day off with me.

More developments on the podcast I mentioned some entries back. After telling my friend how I felt, he's been acting very petty. He's been sending me texts now and then that leave a slight reasonable doubt as to whether it is meant to poke at me. He released the latest episode and texted me that the very beginning might pique my interest. I listened and he had included a disclaimer at the start saying that I had made a mistake he had considered removing but thought it was funny and left it in; he hoped the audience would feel the same. It could be considered something someone would do to add levity to a podcast (since hosts do make mistakes on air), but it seems more like a deliberate move to mock me as I'm sure he removed his own errors. So, with that all being said, I'm done with it entirely. I don't need to be mocked about something I'm only helping with. I'm thinking of just sending a text simply saying he should consider it my last episode. I haven't taken any action yet as I wanted to think over, to determine if my frustrations are truly founded. However, I think with the way things have been over the past week or so, it seems like a very effortful inclusion to elevate himself and debase me. It has been difficult to parse because it feels like true gaslighting. I'm sure he'll say he has no idea what I'm upset about, but I expect that response.

Gratitude:

  • For a fun night with my wife watching a movie together

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 80:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 31:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 89:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink alcohol. Had a few non-alcoholic beers.
    • 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. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Continued reading my novel.
      • Watched a movie with my wife.
      • Exercise: Lower Body B.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Completed 8 pomodoros.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Made it up to bed. Maybe not quite at the right time, but I was up and completed my nightly routine.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up because that worked in the past.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Tidied up; vacuumed the basement couch and floor.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
  • Like 3
Posted
17 hours ago, FDRx7 said:

More developments on the podcast I mentioned some entries back. After telling my friend how I felt, he's been acting very petty. He's been sending me texts now and then that leave a slight reasonable doubt as to whether it is meant to poke at me. He released the latest episode and texted me that the very beginning might pique my interest. I listened and he had included a disclaimer at the start saying that I had made a mistake he had considered removing but thought it was funny and left it in; he hoped the audience would feel the same. It could be considered something someone would do to add levity to a podcast (since hosts do make mistakes on air), but it seems more like a deliberate move to mock me as I'm sure he removed his own errors. So, with that all being said, I'm done with it entirely. I don't need to be mocked about something I'm only helping with. I'm thinking of just sending a text simply saying he should consider it my last episode. I haven't taken any action yet as I wanted to think over, to determine if my frustrations are truly founded. However, I think with the way things have been over the past week or so, it seems like a very effortful inclusion to elevate himself and debase me. It has been difficult to parse because it feels like true gaslighting. I'm sure he'll say he has no idea what I'm upset about, but I expect that response.

Wow. It does seem like a really harsh poke. Otherwise, I can't imagine why he wouldn't at least inform you beforehand, because it doesn't matter to the audience in the end. The main issue I see here is that these things linger on the relationship; it's not only about the podcast. How are you going to approach that?

  • Like 3
Posted

Day 66 - Friday (yesterday)

Summary:

I've completed my 90 days without alcohol. The time went by much faster than I'd anticipated. While I plan to drink again, my relationship to alcohol has significantly changed because of this experience. At parties and gatherings, I can be confident that I can have one or two drinks and then switch to something non-alcoholic for the rest of the evening while still having a good time. I now have so many options of things to drink as substitutes at home that I can truly keep alcohol to a minimum and for times when I can really enjoy it without excess. Mocktails have opened a whole new world to me that allows me to be creative with flavor, aroma, and appearance while still protecting my health. I'm very thankful for this experience. My plan now will be to try not to exceed 2-3 drinks per week (could be beer, a cocktail, wine, anything...). I know this may have exceptions sometimes but in general this will be my metric. This also does not mean that because I have the limit I have to consume 2-3 drinks a week. I can have none. It's simply the upper limit. The biggest thing in helping me stick to this is determining before a gathering how much I plan to drink. Going in with a plan will help me to adhere to the limit, and now I have the confidence to back it up. The best part is, if I restart this and feel like it's not working - I can always quit! I've done it now for 90 days and would be perfectly fine going without again.

I will continue to track Excessive Drinking on here, but now adherence will switch to my metric. Part 1 of my 90-day detox is complete. Next up is YouTube in 8 more days (not including today). YouTube is also forever changed, and I don't think I'll go back to having free reign over it or even time limits. I think my wife holding the passcode is great because I've realized how little I actually need to watch on YouTube to learn things. But more to come on that in another week.

Gratitude:

  • For the experience of 90 days with no alcohol. I feel transformed and ready for a new beginning.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 81:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 32:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 90:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink alcohol. Had a few non-alcoholic beers and a mocktail.
    • 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. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Finished another novel! Started reading another book while I wait for the second installment of that novel series to arrive.
      • Spent much of the afternoon with my wife antique shopping.
      • Mocktails: Made another mocktail. Starting to experiment a little more with my own twists.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable today.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Made it up to bed and completed part of my nightly routine. I took melatonin to try to help me reset. Started using .5 stars (don't know why I didn't do this before?)
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up because that worked in the past.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Tidied up only.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
  • Like 2
Posted
8 hours ago, Ikar said:

Wow. It does seem like a really harsh poke. Otherwise, I can't imagine why he wouldn't at least inform you beforehand, because it doesn't matter to the audience in the end. The main issue I see here is that these things linger on the relationship; it's not only about the podcast. How are you going to approach that?

Honestly, I'm not really sure what to do anymore. I agree, these kinds of things happen in podcasts and people will say, "Ah we should cut that out" but they leave it anyways. However, no one puts a disclaimer at the beginning mentioning that a co-host "made a mistake they find funny and hopes the audience does too." They just leave it alone. The audience will either laugh along or ignore it. It seems like a very subtle way of digging at me but with plausible deniability intact.

I did gently confront him on it, asking why he chose to include that. He simply said that it made him smile when he heard it and decided to include it, that I can let him know what I think once I listen. It seems to be a very innocent response which is why I can't determine the intention or what to do about it. He did follow it up with, "You can include what you like when you edit, too" which didn't really make me feel any better about it. He certainly has a history of saying things to me that skirt the edge of being a dig and an innocent comment, so I'm trying to tell myself I'm not going crazy here but also to not act irrationally or impulsively.

I talked it over with a mutual friend of ours to get his advice. He tried to look on the positive side of things, which I appreciated, but he also did not discount that my fears could be true. I think speaking with him at least kept me from acting hastily. I've had a day to think it over and, unfortunately, I'm still on the fence. He's continuing to move on like nothing happened which, why wouldn't he? I think I need to mull it over a while longer and really see how I feel about it. Whether or not the podcast is interesting, I'm starting to wonder if it's at all good for our relationship.

  • Like 2
Posted
1 hour ago, FDRx7 said:

Honestly, I'm not really sure what to do anymore. I agree, these kinds of things happen in podcasts and people will say, "Ah we should cut that out" but they leave it anyways. However, no one puts a disclaimer at the beginning mentioning that a co-host "made a mistake they find funny and hopes the audience does too." They just leave it alone. The audience will either laugh along or ignore it. It seems like a very subtle way of digging at me but with plausible deniability intact.

I did gently confront him on it, asking why he chose to include that. He simply said that it made him smile when he heard it and decided to include it, that I can let him know what I think once I listen. It seems to be a very innocent response which is why I can't determine the intention or what to do about it. He did follow it up with, "You can include what you like when you edit, too" which didn't really make me feel any better about it. He certainly has a history of saying things to me that skirt the edge of being a dig and an innocent comment, so I'm trying to tell myself I'm not going crazy here but also to not act irrationally or impulsively.

I talked it over with a mutual friend of ours to get his advice. He tried to look on the positive side of things, which I appreciated, but he also did not discount that my fears could be true. I think speaking with him at least kept me from acting hastily. I've had a day to think it over and, unfortunately, I'm still on the fence. He's continuing to move on like nothing happened which, why wouldn't he? I think I need to mull it over a while longer and really see how I feel about it. Whether or not the podcast is interesting, I'm starting to wonder if it's at all good for our relationship.

 
 

To clarify, he released the episode to the public without discussing with you the mistake/inclusion of the mistake? Regardless of his motivations, this seems like a shitty thing to do. I would think the normal way of handling this would be to mention "Oh, it turns out you made this mistake, but I reckon it would be funny and engaging to still include it. What do you think?" It would take two seconds to drop you a message and properly communicate.

I guess it's impossible to be sure of his actual motivations. Perhaps the best thing is to draw up a list of pros and cons of the podcast, and focus on what is best for your personal growth, or happiness, or whatever metric you feel is most important to measure it by. Do you think it would be possible to drop the podcast and still maintain a friendship with him?

  • Like 2
Posted
17 hours ago, Vee said:

To clarify, he released the episode to the public without discussing with you the mistake/inclusion of the mistake? Regardless of his motivations, this seems like a shitty thing to do. I would think the normal way of handling this would be to mention "Oh, it turns out you made this mistake, but I reckon it would be funny and engaging to still include it. What do you think?" It would take two seconds to drop you a message and properly communicate.

You are correct in your clarification. I agree, I think that would be the normal thing to do. He could have asked me to listen to it first and see what I thought instead of releasing it to the public, putting the disclaimer, telling me cryptically to listen to the beginning as it might "pique my interest", and then commenting on it only after I reached out.

 

17 hours ago, Vee said:

I guess it's impossible to be sure of his actual motivations. Perhaps the best thing is to draw up a list of pros and cons of the podcast, and focus on what is best for your personal growth, or happiness, or whatever metric you feel is most important to measure it by. Do you think it would be possible to drop the podcast and still maintain a friendship with him?

That's a good idea, listing out the pros and cons. I think we could still maintain the friendship, but anything is possible. I suppose it's worth considering, if our friendship is destroyed by ending this casual joint project, how strong of a friendship was it really despite the years? I imagine he'll be upset, but I can't go around my whole life trying to make everyone else happy at my own expense. I appreciate your thoughts on this.

  • Like 2
Posted

Day 67 - Saturday (yesterday)

Summary:

Decent day overall. Some of my habits slipped but I did feel productive because I completed much of my year-end tasks for work. Year-end is due Tuesday and I knew I wouldn't have too much time over the next day or so.

Although I love my reading, I feel I'm falling into a bit of a monotonous routine. Maybe I need to look at my hobbies list again and switch things up. It could be that I'm just a bit tired and need to rest. That's always a valid option. I need to do some cleaning around the house today, but I'll try to just take it easy in general.

Gratitude:

  • The sun is shining and it's a beautiful Autumn morning. The leaves are resplendent in their amber and vermilion display.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 82:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 33:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 91:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink alcohol. Had a few non-alcoholic beers.
    • Plan: As a general rule, no more than 2-3 drinks per week. Begin here and see how it goes.

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not complete.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Reading: I've been reading How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler. It's been enjoyable so far but has definitely shown me gaps in my reading skills.
      • Spent a good portion of the afternoon/evening doing my year-end stuff for work. Typically I don't like to work on the weekends, but I knew I wouldn't have much time by Tuesday, which is when it is due.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable today.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★☆☆
    • Description: Fell asleep on the couch and did not get up to bed. However, based on the time I fell asleep, it seems my body is starting to wake me up closer to the time I'd like to be awake.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up because that worked in the past.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not do much cleaning or tidying yesterday other than a few things in the morning.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
  • Like 1
Posted

Day 68 - Sunday (yesterday)

Summary:

Really busy day yesterday! We have a gathering this evening (Monday) and I wanted to ensure certain parts of the house were spotless. I spent most of the day cleaning. In the evening, my wife and I shared some wine (a glass each) to celebrate the end of the 90 days and then I made myself one cocktail. I don't want to speak too soon, but I think my attitude has completely shifted because of this journey. After I had the cocktail, I had this feeling of, "Yeah that's enough." Then, I switched to some non-alcoholic beverages and enjoyed the remainder of my night. I'm not sure if my 2-3 drinks will always be realistic depending on the week (I picked a bad week to start with a couple gatherings and some time away with my wife to a special place), but I think it's good to shoot for in general. I think what may be more realistic in terms of weeks with lots of socializing is determining ahead of time how much I will drink. I will try this tonight with the gathering. I anticipate it going well.

I'm switching things again for my sleep. I know, I'm constantly doing this... but I'm trying to find what will work. The weak point for me now is falling asleep on the couch reading. So, I've decided to set an alarm for 11:30pm to get me off the couch and sitting at the desk to journal. The alarm forces me to take a picture of something of my choosing. I chose a page in the journal that will not change, so I must physically get up and photograph the open journal. I am optimistic this will help. It may not work out tonight because I don't know how long people will be awake, but even if I can't do it tonight, I can start tomorrow.

Gratitude:

  • For everything that I cleaned up! The house looks (and smells) nice.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 83:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 34:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 92:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink alcohol. Had a few non-alcoholic beers.
    • Plan: As a general rule, no more than 2-3 drinks per week. Begin here and see how it goes.

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not complete.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Reading: Continued reading in the evening.
      • Spent part of the afternoon with my wife, but a lot of it spent cleaning in preparation for 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. Plan activities for when you have low energy.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable today.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★☆☆
    • Description: Managed to make it up to bed earlier in the morning, but didn't complete my nightly routine.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did a ton of cleaning yesterday. Tidied up; vacuumed the couch; steamed/sprayed the couch; dusted the living room; washed couch pillows.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
  • Like 2
Posted

Day 69 - Monday (yesterday)

Summary:

Had a nice time with my friends yesterday at an event. It was cold out, but it was still fun. A little tired today, but I'll manage. Happy with how much I was able to clean yesterday. The house is sparkling.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 84:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 35:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 93:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Had 2.5 drinks which was about what I was thinking I would have going into the even this evening. Spread across the evening and not all at once.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Due to the unique circumstances of yesterday, giving a pass on this.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Socializing: Had a great time socializing with friends at the event.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: Completed 6 pomodoros.
    • Description: ★★★☆☆
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Yesterday's event prevented me from being at home to go to bed earlier, but when home I went to bed after chatting with some of the friends who were staying overnight. Completed part of my nightly routine.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Again, did a ton of cleaning yesterday. Tidied up; dusted pretty much everything; cleaned the bathroom; vacuumed living room couch; vacuumed most rooms.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Day 70 - Tuesday

Summary:

Not much summary to give. Had a decently productive day at work but at the end of the night I wasn't feeling too great. I think it's my allergies. It seems like I slept it off, though.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 85:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 36:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 94:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink any alcohol.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not complete.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • Game Quitters Journal:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Filling it out late.
    • 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:
      • Reading: read novel.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: Completed 8 pomodoros.
    • Description: ★★★★★
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1-2; 2: 3-4; 3: 5-6; 4: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★☆☆
    • Description: Did eventually make it up to bed. Wasn't feeling to great so I fell asleep very early. I think my allergies have been really bothering me.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Tidied up more and cleaned the upstairs hallway.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
Posted (edited)

Day 71 - Wednesday (yesterday)

Summary:

The biggest update here is that my tested method for getting me off the couch worked!! My alarm went off and I woke up, went over to the desk, took the picture, and sat down to complete my journal. I then made it up to bed and completed my routine. I'm going to keep doing this, I'm optimistic it will continue to work. It was also a success this morning. The alarm went off and I immediately got up to take a picture of the coffee pot downstairs, as that's the only way to shut off the alarm.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 86:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 37:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 95:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink any alcohol.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

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. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Reading: read novel.
      • Exercise: Upper Body A
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: Completed 7 pomodoros.
    • Description: ★★★★
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 1.5: 2; 2: 3; 2.5: 4; 3: 5; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Went up to bed at my alarm, did my nightly routine, and was in bed. I was even up at my alarm this morning!
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: My wife told me to take a pass on this one today since I cleaned so much the past few days. 😆
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
  • Like 1
Posted

Day 72 - Thursday (yesterday)

Summary:

Yesterday, I went to an an event for alumni from my school who live in the area. It was a small gathering but certainly fun and worth attending. I was very responsible and had only one beer and then switched to water.

The evening alarm is working for me. Although I'm a bit dazed sometimes when I wake up, it is getting me over to my desk to journal and then head up to bed. The only thing is the alarm can sometimes be unreliable, crashing now and then. I've contacted the support team to investigate the issue. My weekend will be a bit different as my wife and I are taking a little trip, but I'll try to keep my habits as best as possible while away, even if in modified form.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 87:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 38:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 96:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Had one beer when I went out for a social event and then switched to water.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

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. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Reading: read novel.
      • Exercise: Lower Body A
      • Socializing: Went out to a happy hour alumni event hosted by my alma mater.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: Completed 5 pomodoros.
    • Description: ★★★
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Went up to bed at my alarm, did part of my nightly routine, and was in bed. My alarm had a malfunction this morning though so I got up a bit later. I contacted the app support team to investigate.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Still riding out one more day of cleaning, although I didn't tidy up anything yesterday.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
  • Like 2
Posted (edited)

Day 73 - Friday

Summary:

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 88:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 39:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 97:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Had one drink at parents' place. Mostly had NA drinks.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

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. Set your timer to remind you.
  • Game Quitters Journal:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable as I left my computer at home.
    • 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:
      • Relaxed with parents and wife.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: Completed 8 pomodoros.
    • Description: ★★★★★
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: No data.
    • Description: Vacation so things are a bit different.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Tidied up and cleaned sink.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
Posted (edited)

Day 74 - Saturday

Summary:

First day of vacation. Did not bring laptop.

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image.thumb.png.fa399f6a7ed154c1ebdc3f9dce2daacc.png

PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 89:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 40:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 98:
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Had three drinks - a complementary one at the desk and then two at dinner. Then switched to water. Giving myself permission to have a little more over this weekend because it was a special celebration for my wife and I.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Chose not to journal over the vacation.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • Game Quitters Journal:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable as I left my computer at home.
    • 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:
      • Spent the whole day with my wife exploring and relaxing on our little trip!
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: No data.
    • Description: Vacation so things are a bit different.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
Posted (edited)

Day 75 - Sunday

Summary:

Second day of vacation. Did not bring laptop.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 90:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 41:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 99:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Had one drink - a complementary mimosa in the morning.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not journal upon returning home.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • Game Quitters Journal:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Filling out late.
    • 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:
      • Spent the rest of the day with my wife and, toward the end, my parents.
      • Watched a movie with my wife when we returned home.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: No data.
    • Description: Not applicable.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Went up to bed but did not do my routine.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
Posted (edited)

Day 76 - Monday (yesterday)

Summary:

I'm playing a little bit of catchup because of my vacation. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a better summary of things, if more detail is needed. However, I need to note that Sunday was 90 days without YouTube! I did it! I like where things are in life, so I think I'll just continue with my current behavior. I won't do a retrospective yet until my journal entry itself says "Day 90".

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image.thumb.png.95916055fdc18163c433ebadd2db4817.png

PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 91:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 42:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 100:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not journal.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Read in the evening
      • Exercise: Upper Body B
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Completed 8 pomodoros.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Fell asleep on the couch and did not do my nightly routine.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Tidied up and did some dusting.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Day 77 - Tuesday (yesterday)

Summary:

Yesterday was a pretty good day at work. I'm reevaluating my task management system to see if I want to move from digital to paper. My wife is mostly on paper and she loves it. She's quite organized. I'm considering a hybrid approach too. I'm afraid to make the switch but there is honestly no risk really involved. I can always go back to what I was doing before if it doesn't work out. We shall see... I need to read this new book "How to Build a Second Brain" first to see if there is a better way I could be managing my notes.

I'm nearing the end of my 90 days. Not including today, there are 12 days left. I really cannot believe how fast the time went. 90 days felt like such a large, looming goal at the beginning. I'm not sure how many people read this, but once the 90 days are up, you'll notice my journal entries become more condensed. I'll be doing away with the chart, including moving average, etc. and moving to a habit tracker of some kind. The charts have been mostly to see how long it takes to settle into a new habit, get rid of old ones, and the correlation between one habit and another when one of them is/isn't done. I think this format has definitely served its purpose for my 90 day journey. I'll post it in the journal templates at the end with the format that worked best.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 92:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 43:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 101:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not journal.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Read in the evening
      • Exercise: Lower Body B
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Completed 10 pomodoros.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Fell asleep on the couch but I got ready early for bed so most of my nightly routine was complete. Did go up to my bed and did not stay on the couch.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★☆☆☆
    • Description: Tidied up only.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Edited by FDRx7
  • Like 1
Posted

Day 78 - Wednesday (yesterday)

Summary:

Not much to update today. I worked somewhat late yesterday because I have the next two days off. My wife and I watched a movie together. She wanted to watch a romantic English period-piece, which I gave her a hard time about as a joke, telling her I would fall asleep. However, I liked it (which I knew I would, I just like to tease her a little - she enjoys it).

Today is Thanksgiving, so we'll be gathering with family. I'm looking forward to it.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 93:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 44:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 102:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not journal.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Read in the evening
      • Watched a movie with my wife
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Completed 10 pomodoros.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★☆☆☆
    • Description: Decent sleep but fell asleep on the couch.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Tidied up and did a fair amount of vacuuming.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
Posted

Day 79 - Thursday

Summary:

Thanksgiving Day. Spent the morning helping my wife and prepping for the day. The afternoon and evening was spent with family. I did not bring my laptop with me on the trip again, so I'm doing a little bit of catch up.

I am really enjoying the control I have over my drinking. I had two light beers and then switched to NA options afterward. I woke up the next day feeling great.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 94:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 45:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 103:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Had two light beers and then swtiched to NA options. I'm really liking the control I have now over what and how much I drink.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ★★★★
    • Description: Completed a long journal entry the next day.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Spent the day with family for Thanksgiving.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Got ready for bed, completed my nightly routine, and went to bed after arriving back at my parents' place.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
  • Like 1
Posted

Day 80 - Friday (yesterday)

Summary:

Not a great day for habits like sleep, but a relaxing day nonetheless. I read by the fire for a very, very long time yesterday (I think at least 6 hours?!). I was very engrossed in my book. I have many that I want to read, so I'm taking much of my free time do that.

Today, my wife and I will start decorating for Christmas.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 95:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 46:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 104:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not drink any alcohol.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not journal.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Read for a very, very long time in the evening.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not go up to bed or do any of my nightly routine.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★☆☆
    • Description: Tidied up a tiny bit and watered the plants.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
  • Like 2
Posted

Day 81 - Saturday (yesterday)

Summary:

Yesterday, my wife and I spent the whole day decorating for Christmas. We bought some decorations and lighting equipment that we were missing, then went out and got our tree. Upon bringing it home, we set it up and then began swapping out the Fall decor for Christmas. It took us all evening but when we sat down to look at our work, it was worth it.

I haven't really been thinking much about YouTube anymore. I don't feel a desire for it. Every now and then I'll get some nostalgia for the feelings I had when I would sit in the basement and watch things for hours, but it seems to be more for the feeling than for the content. Now, I think I've started to recreate these feelings with reading, listening to music, etc. - which, I think that's what habit changes are all about. I can get similar feelings of coziness in the basement by reading or watching a movie with my wife. Not sure what it is about 90 days, but it certainly seems to be an optimal duration of time for making significant changes.

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PROGRESS UPDATES:

Note: Bold purple text indicates a new change to a plan.

Habits to Kick:

  • YouTube - Day 96:
    • 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.
  • No Podcast Listening - Day 47:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Did not listen.
    • Plan: For the rest of the 90 days, I will not listen to any podcasts. I may even try to make this its own one-off 90-day journey, even after the main one is complete. 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 105:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Had half a drink but didn't finish it.
    • Plan: Determine ahead of time how much you will drink before events. When there are weeks without events, try to keep drinks to 2-3 a week or less (zero is of course totally fine).

Habits to Start:

I will add to this as I determine new habits and their action plans.

  • Journal (physical journal): 
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not journal.
    • Plan: I will continue to journal before getting ready for bed. Set your timer to remind you.
  • 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:
      • Read in the evening.
      • Decorated inside the house for Christmas.
    • 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.
  • Pomodoros:
    • Adherence: No data
    • Description: Not applicable.
    • Plan:  I will start by setting a goal of 8. I adjusted the scoring to encompass a range of completion. A perfect score is 8 pomodoros or more. The stars correspond as follows (star: pomodoros complete): 1: 1; 2: 2; 2.5: 3; 3: 4; 3.5: 5; 4: 6; 4.5: 7; 5: 8+. Each pomodoro will be 25 minutes. Some days are more meeting-heavy than others, so I will count meetings as well where the intent is to focus only on the meeting and taking notes. No multi-tasking.
  • Consistent Bedtime:
    • Adherence: ☆☆☆☆☆
    • Description: Did not go up to bed or do any of my nightly routine.
    • Plan: Focus on the time you wake up. If your workout takes an hour, try to be up at 5:50am so that you have a few minutes to get ready. May need to start at 6:30 depending on how your body feels. Begin slow and walk back the time. Use Alarmy to get you up both in the evening and in the morning using the picture setting.
  • Cleaning Up:
    • Adherence: ★★★★★
    • Description: Naturally tided up and cleaned as we decorated the house.
    • Plan: 0 stars is nothing was done; 1-4 stars is I cleaned one thing OR tidied up, depending on effort. 5 stars is I cleaned one thing AND tidied up. The "thing" cleaned can be big or small, doesn't matter.

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
  • Exercise
  • Like 1

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