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My Journal - Travis


kortheo

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Great post indeed Travis. And thanks for sharing what you are reading, recommandations are always welcome. Congrats for the 100 days.

I actually didn't read anything about the 90 day detox yet. In my mind, I don't want to do a 90 day detox, I want to do a lifelong detox ;) But maybe it's just an introduction to this, I should read it!

In your post, you shows that no matter what, we will always have doubts and fragile moments. And with what we read and experience in life, instead of sitting in front of the computer / on the couch with a controller in hand, will only make us stronger. I start to believe that these good books are here to strengthen our foundations. And these need to be fortified, because if we were addicted to gaming, it means they were very weak!

 

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Great post indeed Travis. And thanks for sharing what you are reading, recommandations are always welcome. Congrats for the 100 days.

I actually didn't read anything about the 90 day detox yet. In my mind, I don't want to do a 90 day detox, I want to do a lifelong detox ;) But maybe it's just an introduction to this, I should read it!

In your post, you shows that no matter what, we will always have doubts and fragile moments. And with what we read and experience in life, instead of sitting in front of the computer / on the couch with a controller in hand, will only make us stronger. I start to believe that these good books are here to strengthen our foundations. And these need to be fortified, because if we were addicted to gaming, it means they were very weak!

 

The idea behind the 90 day detox is that it feels more manageable. It doesn't mean we stop after 90 days - it means for someone just starting out, they think "Sure, I can go without games for 90 days, I'll try it" whereas asking them to commit to never playing games again right away just seems too much. They won't do it (most people anyway).

You are right - any experiences we gain in life make us stronger if we're investing in ourselves. It will take time to strengthen our foundations, and we will all have fragile moments, but we can do it if we keep at it.

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Great post indeed Travis. And thanks for sharing what you are reading, recommandations are always welcome. Congrats for the 100 days.

I actually didn't read anything about the 90 day detox yet. In my mind, I don't want to do a 90 day detox, I want to do a lifelong detox ;) But maybe it's just an introduction to this, I should read it!

In your post, you shows that no matter what, we will always have doubts and fragile moments. And with what we read and experience in life, instead of sitting in front of the computer / on the couch with a controller in hand, will only make us stronger. I start to believe that these good books are here to strengthen our foundations. And these need to be fortified, because if we were addicted to gaming, it means they were very weak!

I just created a resource on the detox here.

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Great post indeed Travis. And thanks for sharing what you are reading, recommandations are always welcome. Congrats for the 100 days.

I actually didn't read anything about the 90 day detox yet. In my mind, I don't want to do a 90 day detox, I want to do a lifelong detox ;) But maybe it's just an introduction to this, I should read it!

In your post, you shows that no matter what, we will always have doubts and fragile moments. And with what we read and experience in life, instead of sitting in front of the computer / on the couch with a controller in hand, will only make us stronger. I start to believe that these good books are here to strengthen our foundations. And these need to be fortified, because if we were addicted to gaming, it means they were very weak!

I just created a resource on the detox here.

Awesome, that's a great starting resource for people, I like it.

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Day 101

I've been doing a much better job of keeping to a schedule this week, and accordingly I'm feeling much happier and more fulfilled. This is an important observation. Waking up late makes me feel lazy and unproductive; waking up on time and planning my time and spending it intentionally makes me feel productive and like I'm being efficient.

I've been exploring my creative side a bit. I purchased some art stuff and have been experimenting with drawing a bit. There are a number of 'therapeutic' or 'meditative' drawing systems out there that I came across, which intrigued me because they are kind of like a formalized version of the kind of doodling I do naturally. I just completed a drawing...template? I guess you could call it. I'll attach it, it was fun. I used to draw a lot more in high school, but it fell away as a hobby. I think I always felt bad at it. But it's a nice resting activity when my brain is tired of thinking.

I also did something that I feel awkward sharing, because I'm afraid it's lame or dorky: I bought an ocarina. I have always wanted one, probably because I liked Zelda a lot... and I wanted some kind of way to be musical (I'm not very musical, though). It's not Zelda themed though, just plain black. I'm not very satisfied with it - it sounds pretty lame to be honest. I was hoping it would be a deeper tone and less squeaky. I think it was a lot cooler in my mind than it ended up being in reality. Nonetheless, now I know what that's like anyway; I don't have to wonder or have it at the back of my mind. Maybe I'll progress to a more involved instrument in the future.

Finally, I've begun returning to my intellectual side for the first time in a while. In college this was by far the dominate side of my personality, but in the past few years it's kind of been submerged. Which is good really, because I've been learning a lot about life and relationships instead, which frankly is more important for happiness. But for me, I think my 'purpose' or how I'm going to find meaning or whatever is going to involve the development of my intellectual side and writing in particular. So, it's good that am returning to this... feeding my mind's a much better use of my time than video games.

Currently Reading 

I like including what I'm reading here, because a) it keeps me accountable to actually finish books, and b) it could spark conversation. But note that not all of these books are related to personal development, or recommendations :). They just reflect my interests of the moment.

  • This Will Make You Smarter
  • Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction (Dimensions of Philosophy)

Gratitude

  1. Buffalo chicken.
  2. Going paperless.
  3. Great headphones and amp!
  4. Creating art.
  5. Keeping to my schedule.

lion_art.jpg

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Day 102

It's New Years Eve, so today I want take a look back at the previous year, and look forward to 2016.

I received an email from the 5 Minute Journal mailing list with their thoughts on how to reflect on a passing year, and I'd like to go ahead and use their prompts here since they're pretty cool. They recommend that you take time to review records you have of your year (journal entries, etc) to get a sense of where you've been in the last 365 days, and then answer these questions.

What are the wins, big and small, that I can celebrate?

  • I grew a lot this year. Looking back at my journal entries over the year, it's consistently clear that I was unhappy in my relationship with my ex-girlfriend. But that was also a condition that caused me to grow a lot emotionally as we both tried our hardest to make it work. I learned a lot about myself and my relationships, and gained a lot of emotional intelligence. I had a lot of challenging but necessary experiences... I had to go through them in order to understand what doesn't work for me, so that I can seek out what does.
  • I also dealt with a lot of shame this year. It came up in multiple forms in my life and I met it head on and processed it. This is still an ongoing process, but it's worth noting. Accordingly, I am less anxious and depressed overall than I was one year ago.
  • I've come into my own at work this year.... I went from being inexperienced and cautious to feeling like I know what I'm doing and moving forward with big projects. Very proud of that.
  • I took steps to explore my spirituality more than I have in the past.
  • I joined GameQuitters, deleted my games, and am no longer a gamer now at 90+ days
  • I left a relationship that wasn't working for me
  • I've started building a social life that works for me, and now have regular social groups that I'm a part of
  • I've begun to rediscover other aspects of myself and develop new interests
  • I ran my first 5k
  • I've improved my relationship with my family

What was I doing when I was achieving my best results?

  • I think there are several habits that correlate with good results for me. Clearly not gaming is one of them. I think I was also doing best what I'm sleeping and exercising consistently. Limiting my caffeine intake is important as it affects my ability to sleep well. Overall, NoFap seems to help as well. So does journaling here... but these have all been going on together, so it's hard to say which contributes what. But they all matter for me to some degree.

What mistakes did I make over and over again?

  • Money and food - I eat out way too often. I struggle to consistently cook and eat in, and this adds up, moneywise. I need to figure out a plan that works for me in this regard
  • Failing to consistently track my spending and budget... this just means I haven't been as efficient with my money and haven't been saving quite as much as I'd like to be.
  • Underestimating the complexity and time necessary to complete work projects

What are the experiences and achievements I would love to look back on this time next year?

  • Fully contributing to my Roth IRA and as much as possible to 457k.
  • Getting certified in a technology relevant for my job. (e.g. MCSA: Windows Server 2012)
  • Having a written draft for my writing project (I currently don't even know what it will be, but I know it'll be something :D)
  • Trying out, and hopefully advancing in, Jiu Jitsu
  • Getting a road bike and making that a part of my lifestyle
  • A plethora of new social and dating experiences
  • Continuing to grow with the Gamequitters community - as a specific goal, not relapsing at all in 2016
  • As a somewhat arbitrary goal, I want to read at least 35 books in 2016 (I have no idea how many I normally read).

What is my ONE most important thing for 2016? (*This is what you will focus most of your efforts on in 2016)

  • This is a bit non-specific, but continuing to stay on the path of personal growth that I'm on now. It means continuing to grow, take risks, be vulnerable, commit to habits, improve myself, meet new people, make new friends. That is truly the most important thing.


Those are my reflections for today... happy new year, everyone! :) 

 

Currently Reading 

  • This Will Make You Smarter
  • Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction (Dimensions of Philosophy)
  • The Name of the Wind

Gratitude

  1. Walks in the sun.
  2. Talking with strangers in coffee shops.
  3. Learning about Marx.
  4. Intellectual conversations with old friends.
  5. Golden Age of TV.
Edited by kortheo
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Day 103

Having an okay day today. Got up, went to a coffee shop, read. I didn't do all of my morning routine though. It's been tough some days, because I've been feeling lethargic and low energy lately, and it just takes way more willpower than usual.

I think I know why that is though. It didn't occur to me until today, even though it's pretty obvious. I've been really sedentary for the majority of my vacation. I've been doing a little bit of body weight exercise each day, but I'm realizing that this is insufficient for me - I need more exercise overall to feel good. I think if I start getting more exercise in, my energy levels will pick up. For today and tomorrow, I'm going to try to get 10,000 steps, and then on Sunday I'm planning on going to a fitness bootcamp meetup :). It was only a month ago or so that I ran my 5k, but since then, without doing that extra training, I think my physical fitness has tapered off a bit... I definitely need to add more fitness back in. Living and learning! I'm hoping that I'll like the bootcamp and I can start going to it weekly; if all else fails I can always train for another 5k, since I know more are coming up soon.

I didn't really do anything for NYE. I wasn't able to find something to go to, but in the end it was fine because I didn't really feel like socializing last night. I ended up reading a book all night, and really enjoyed it. Hoorah introversion.

I went for a walk at a trail nearby today. It was a place that reminded me of my ex, so it put me in a reflective mood. I think I'm making progress in moving on from the relationship. It felt good to sit and think in a quiet shady place, though.

I guess I don't have any major insights today. Trying to be patient with myself and appreciate where I'm at. Finding the right habits, creating them, and maintaining them can be a challenge... but so worth it.

Currently Reading 

Non-Fiction

  • This Will Make You Smarter

  • Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction (Dimensions of Philosophy)

Fiction

  • The Name of the Wind

  • The King In Yellow

 

Gratitude
  1. Walks in the shade.
  2. Reading outside in fresh air.
  3. Making plans with friends.
  4. Getting more physical activity.
  5. Discovering new books.
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Very impressive, Travis. You drew that lion? Blew me away.

You might like the following two books for fiction: Michael Ende's "Momo" and "Neverending Story".

It's a very unique blend of beauty and creativity. "Momo" focuses on the uniqueness of time, while the "Neverending Story" focuses on your creativity while staying true to yourself.

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Very impressive, Travis. You drew that lion? Blew me away.

You might like the following two books for fiction: Michael Ende's "Momo" and "Neverending Story".

It's a very unique blend of beauty and creativity. "Momo" focuses on the uniqueness of time, while the "Neverending Story" focuses on your creativity while staying true to yourself.

With the lion I started with a template (basically, a framework for the lion's face that I got from a book) and I filled it in with patterns. So I can't claim total originality :P But I'm glad you liked it!

Thanks for the book recommendations, I'll check them out.

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Day 104

I observed back when I was in college that you really get out of college what you put into it. If you study harder, focus, seek out opportunities that interest you, you'll get more value out of your education and your time in that environment. It occurred to me recently that this generalizes to all of life, too. If we engage with life and take responsibility for our lives, and seek out what we really want, we're going to have a much better time than if we distract ourselves and passively wait around for things to come to us. It's pretty obvious I guess, but it's not something that everyone immediately knows.

---

A friend invited me out to a Magic: The Gathering draft last night. I've played Magic a bit in the past, but never been that hardcore about it. I was actually debating whether to go or not, but ultimately convinced myself to do it, since I said I would, and I didn't want to go back on my word. Plus, it would get me out of the house, I figured.

The event was okay. I got to socialize a bit around new people. I won one round and lost another, but didn't really care if I won or lost, to be honest. I had fun, but I just wasn't really feeling it. I was there 3.5 hours and decided to go home even though the event was still going on for a while.

When I got back I was in an odd mood. I couldn't help but feel like Magic felt like a video game in physical form. In order to be good at it, it takes so much time, money, effort, etc, because there's always changing cards and the meta shifts, etc. I guess I resented this. The sort of people at the event were all nerdy guys with various degrees of social intelligence and emotional maturity. I could fit in with them, sure, but there are probably other groups I'd rather be spending time with, who might help me grow as a person more. I'd rather spend my socializing time doing things that involve more actual interaction with people. Magic is a game that takes a lot of thought - and other parts of my life (work, hobbies like reading and writing) already involve enough intellectual, analytical effort... I'd rather my time socializing didn't also require that. I prefer to just relax and talk to people these days.

I guess now that I've eliminated video games from my life, I've freed myself from the notion that games in general are worth investing a ton of time and energy into. In this case, it doesn't matter to me whether the game is physical or virtual, I guess. Board games with friends that are quick to learn and fill an evening - those are great. But collectible card games, for example, are a whole other beast. One thing that does still catch my interest about Magic isn't the game mechanics, but the awesome art and fantasy themes - thankfully, there are plenty of awesome pieces of fiction I can indulge to scratch that itch.

I don't know. Something just didn't sit right with me about the whole experience. This is a surprise to me, but I suppose it's telling of where I'm at on my journey. Food for thought.
 
---
 
It occurs to me that writing these entries feel like laying bricks in a wall. When I started I had nothing. Now, I have a little wall made of a 104 bricks. It's not a big wall, but it's not nothing, either. Some bricks feel more significant than others, but they all connect together to form a whole.
 
Currently Reading 
Non-Fiction
  • This Will Make You Smarter
  • Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction (Dimensions of Philosophy)
Fiction
  • The Name of the Wind
  • The King In Yellow (Finished)
Gratitude
  1. Discovering cosmic horror and weird fiction through True Detective and The King In Yellow.
  2. Arranging for my friend to help my sister build a website.
  3. Being vulnerable by putting myself into new experiences this weekend.
  4. Discounted massage that I got today.
  5. Being more active today.
Edited by kortheo
typo
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Hey Travis,

Just wanted to say I really resonated with what you said about Magic the Gathering. I hadn't played in a while and then I made a small group of friends where MtG was part of the social glue, so to speak. I gladly played with their pre-made decks (I became a pseudo-deck tester at one point) since I realized the monetary and time effort it would take to get really good was not something I wanted to commit to. Hanging out with them wasn't fun for the MtG, though; rather, it was fun because the people I were playing with were really funny people who knew how to have a good time. So yeah, I feel you. :D 

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Day 105

Bootcamp

Feeling great today. I went to a fitness bootcamp meetup event this morning. It was the first time I'd been to this particular event. There were a lot of people there, I'd say 15 or so plus 2 instructors. It was at a park right adjacent to the ocean basically, so we had a great view, and the weather was great this morning, too.

It kicked my butt. My quads hate me right now. I knew one person at the event because I had met him at the rock-climbing meetup event I went to last month, so it was nice to see him again. Besides that, everyone there was really positive and friendly. The coaches were awesome, very enthusiastic and supportive. Lots of high fives and encouragement. The workout itself was great, too. I will definitely be going back.

At the end one of the coaches gave a little start-of-a-new-year spiel about improving your life by having the right mindset and making the right choices, and how she had gone from a place of being on suicide watch to living a life she loved, which is quite the story. What that really said to me was ... here is a group of people who really care about self-improvement. I'm beginning to realize that most of the people I've spent my life around really do not have that mindset. There are a few here or there that do, but if you look at most gamers for example, they don't have that mindset at all, in my experience. They're not gaming to improve themselves. Up until now the only place I've really encountered people with a mindset like this is online - to find it in real life is really exciting, and proves to me that I can find better people to spend my time with if I try, people who share my goals and aspirations and drive to improve and live a life is meaningful. I guess part of me didn't think that was possible until now, for some reason. I just haven't been exposed to it.

2016 Goals

I've spent a little time working out my goals for this coming year. Zenhabits has a nice post that gave me some inspiration. The main thing I took away was his first point - monthly challenges with a weekly focus. In the past I've tried to change one habit each month for a year, and that was actually a good framework for me. 20-30 days is about the right amount of time to start a new habit. I started doing that, based off of reading Zenhabits, way back in like 2011 in college. That was how I first began to meditate, exercise regularly, etc. So I'm going to revisit that and expand the structure a bit.

For each month I'm going to pick a special focus. For January, it's going to be exercise. My commitment is going to be going to this bootcamp event every Sunday for the month.

I also have goals that will be constant every month. For example, I committed to reading 36 books this year, or 3 books per month. So I'll have to track that and make sure I'm keeping up with that.

I have a savings goal, so I'm going to review my spending once per week using Personal Capital (great service) and make sure that I'm on track to meet that goal.

I also want to work on my writing, so I'm going to have a weekly writing goal... not sure what that will look like yet. Maybe I'll get back to weekly blog posts.

I'm tracking this all in Evernote, where I can format it as a to-do list and list out each of my month's goals. I think I will also include quarterly goals or reviews, but I'm not sure how that will go down just yet. 

Vacation...ending.

Also, today is the last day of my vacation from work. Back to the old grind tomorrow... it'll be interesting to see how they got along without me haha. Also, time to switch back to my old schedule! I was beginning to like the new schedule I worked out for myself. But I think it's been a good vacation length and I'm ready to go back. I got a lot of work done on personal projects! Personal achievements during my vacation:

  • Learning how to create a schedule to motivate myself and keep busy
  • Deleted all my game accounts
  • Went paperless
  • Read 3 books
  • Bought new clothes
  • Completed all my Xmas shopping
  • Detoxed from reddit and facebook
  • Opened a Roth IRA for myself
  • Explored new creative outlets
  • Did a lot of social stuff

All in all, not too bad! Hope everyone has a great day!

 

Currently Reading 
Non-Fiction

  • This Will Make You Smarter
  • Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction (Dimensions of Philosophy)
Fiction
  • The Name of the Wind
Gratitude
  1. The excellent bootcamp group I went to.
  2. Grocery shopping last night instead of procrastinating on it.
  3. Protein shake + banana.
  4. Figuring out my goals for this month.
  5. Having had a great vacation.
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What do you think of "This Will Make You Smarter"?

It sounds like it might be an interesting book. The reviews for it on amazon are a bit divisive.  A lot of people gave it 5 stars and raved about how great it was.  But there's also a significant amount of reviews that are very negative. (Of course ignoring the 1-star "Didn't read" reviews)

Do you have any favorite essays from it?

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What do you think of "This Will Make You Smarter"?

It sounds like it might be an interesting book. The reviews for it on amazon are a bit divisive.  A lot of people gave it 5 stars and raved about how great it was.  But there's also a significant amount of reviews that are very negative. (Of course ignoring the 1-star "Didn't read" reviews)

Do you have any favorite essays from it?

I'm about half-way through it currently. It really depends on your interests. If you like science and are interested in scientific concepts and critical thinking then you'll probably enjoy it. If you already know a lot about that area some of it will probably be old hat. I think my biggest criticism is that most of the essays are very short - basically just long enough to explain the concept they're wanting to convey. So you have 150 short essays that cluster into loosely related topics. I think I would have preferred fewer, longer essays. It's an enjoyable read overall, but I'm reading it for a book club - I probably wouldn't have picked it up of my own free will, to be honest.

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Day 106

I'm back at my job today. Pretty mellow morning so far. Just catching up on emails and making sure everything is still running smoothly.

I've mentioned a few times here that over the break I really stopped using facebook and reddit for the most part. I think this has really made a huge difference for me, so I want to expand on it a bit. In The Shallows, Nicholas Carr talks about the internet and the concept of "cognitive load", or basically how much information our brains are having to process at any given time. Internet browsing has so many distractions, and this increases our cognitive load significantly, which over time reduces out ability to focus for extended periods. We train ourselves to follow the rabbit hole of new content and hyperlinks. There was a study that showed that when two people are reading the same text, but one with hyperlinks on some words and some without, the person reading the text without hyperlinks will have better reading comprehension. This is striking, but makes sense - each time you come across a hyperlink, your brain has to make an extra decision of whether to click it or not. That's actually a decent advertisement for extensions like Readability, which extract text from pages and present it to you in a cleaned up format.

Reddit, Facebook, and other sites with endless streams of scrolling content ramp up your cognitive load severely. I think they impact me much more than a site with a static page, like a news site. I installed a plugin for facebook that disables the news feed, so now I only use facebook for events and messaging, basically. When I saw the blank news feed page I actually feel tension leaving my body as I relaxed, realizing I didn't have to process a deluge of new information. After being away from reddit for a couple weeks, looking at its homepage actually stresses me out. It's just so much information to process.

Since removing or changing how I use these sites, and dedicating myself to reading books instead, I have increased my ability to focus for long periods of time. The other night I sat engrossed in a book and read for 4 hours straight, which I haven't done in years. It felt fantastic to be in such a prolonged flow state.

I have a goal to read 36 books this year, so I think sticking to this trend of reducing distracting internet time and putting that time to books is going to be the only way I can really achieve it. Sure, I'll still look at a reddit thread here or there if it comes up in a google search, but hopefully my days of mindlessly browsing for something to entertain me are gone.

 

Currently Reading 
Non-Fiction

  • This Will Make You Smarter
  • Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction (Dimensions of Philosophy)
Fiction
  • The Name of the Wind
Gratitude
  1. A quiet morning back at work.
  2. Getting invited to sushi by coworkers.
  3. Feeling sore from working out yesterday :)
  4. Not having any emergencies to tend to right away.
  5. Morning coffee.
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Day 107

Yesterday I read Leo Baubata's Focus manifesto (http://focusmanifesto.com/). Thanks to Cam for recommendation in another thread.

This was a wonderful refresher for me. I'm familiar with his general philosophy, but this was an excellent distillation of how to focus and I really needed it right now. It helped me begin to declutter my life again, physically and digitally. I went through a big declutter phase a few years ago, but it's nice to tidy up once in a while. Recently I feel like my life has gotten pretty cluttered again.

The manifesto talks about narrowing your focus in your life by deciding what is most important to you. After thinking about it, I realized that having a Netflix subscription makes me feel "guilty" for not watching things on Netflix, which is silly. I feel like I "should" watch certain TV series because people tell me they're good or that I'll like them. But they're rarely something I naturally gravitate towards in my free time. Deciding to watch them feels like moving uphill instead of downhill, if that makes sense. Going against the grain.  So I decided to cancel my subscription and save myself some money. I usually watch movies with friends, or occasionally if I'm really in the mood I'll rent one on Google Play. But I don't actually use Netflix that much. Simply getting rid of it makes me feel like I have fewer 'to-do's - watching certain movies or series actually weighed on my mind as something I needed to do. I'd rather not have that in my mindset, there are more important things to focus on. Leo points out that you can't do everything; you have to choose the set of things you actually have time to do, and hopefully focus and do them well, which is a mindset that I like. If nothing else, I think that replacing TV time with more books is truer to the person that I want to be.

Following up with my reddit/facebook stuff, I'm also going to try to consume less news/blogs. Most of the time I did it to escape whatever I didn't want to work on... it was more of a form of procrastination than me seeking out actual interests. Leo points out that the reason we have trouble unplugging from endless sources of information is because we're afraid of not knowing - afraid we'll miss something important. In reality, this is rarely the case. In 2010 I was in a remote part of Indonesia for 1 month, and we had basically no contact with the outside world other than a satellite phone. I remember getting back to the US and checking the news, anxious to learn what I had missed, and I realized that nothing truly significant had actually happened. Sure, important news sometimes happens, but it's actually pretty rare, and if something so earth-shaking happens that you need to know about it, you're going to find out. Someone will tell you. You'll hear it on a TV or radio in some public place. There's nothing wrong with reading the news, obviously. But I want to make it less of a reflexive procrastination habit. Or get over the thought that I'm somehow worse off for not forcing myself to keep up every day.

Last night I began to declutter my apartment a bit. Threw out of a few things, but it's a gradual process. It feels good though, and I'm going to keep going with it. It's nice to tune in to how my environment affects my emotions.

Currently Reading 

  • Non-Fiction: 1) This Will Make You Smarter, 2) Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction
  • Fiction: The Name of the Wind
Gratitude
  1. Getting a good night's sleep.
  2. Hot shower.
  3. Eating breakfast.
  4. Getting to work on time.
  5. Podcasts while driving to work.
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Congratulations for focusing on focus! :) Decluttering truly is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

I'm quite disappointed by This Will Make You Smarter. I'm not learning anything new from it, to the point that I'm pondering whether to keep reading it or not. On the other hand I find The Shallows an excellent read.

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Congratulations for focusing on focus! :) Decluttering truly is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

I'm quite disappointed by This Will Make You Smarter. I'm not learning anything new from it, to the point that I'm pondering whether to keep reading it or not. On the other hand I find The Shallows an excellent read.

Yeah, This Will Make You Smarter isn't for everyone, and is a bit dry, and also talks about a lot of thing I'm already familiar said. I mentioned elsewhere that I'm reading it for a book club, and didn't intend it as a recommendation for the forum. I put it here to represent my interests and current headspace. Glad you're liking The Shallows though! :D

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Day 108

Woke up with a cold today. I felt relatively OK though, so I decided to come into work. I'll leave early if it gets worse.

Yesterday at work I locked my keys in my car while it was still running. I really had to resist beating myself up about it; I felt like such an idiot. I felt pretty embarrassed. It was also in the rain, and in an inconvenient location for someone to come help (AAA etc). Thankfully I was near our maintenance department at the time, and they were happy to help me out. I didn't feel like they were judging me at all it; it was something they had all seen and dealt with before a lot and it was no big deal. They improvised slimjims out of metal rods and after 20 minutes in the rain under this funky Hawaiian umbrella they were able to get it open for me. Very grateful. I learned two things from the experience. One, that in situations like that where things are beyond my control (I'm just waiting for them to get it unlocked) there's no sense in worrying or panicking since I can't influence the outcome. Two, that it's okay to rely on others to help you sometimes.

Being back at work I of course have less time to devote to myself and my personal development, but I suppose that makes the hours I do have free all the more important. Right now I'm focusing on improving organization and focus and workflow at work, which are thankfully transferable skills.

Today is my weekly trivia tonight, it will be nice to see friends there again who I haven't seen in two weeks.

That's all I have for today. I'm going to take my slightly sick self and go get as much done as I can :) Have a good day everyone.

Currently Reading 

  • Non-Fiction: 1) This Will Make You Smarter, 2) Introduction To Marx And Engels: A Critical Reconstruction
  • Fiction: The Name of the Wind
Gratitude
  1. Coworkers unlocking my car.
  2. Being productive yesterday.
  3. Centralizing my life in Evernote.
  4. Having the courage to ask my neighbor a question.
  5. Having a vulnerable conversation with a male friend.
Edited by kortheo
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