My Journal - Alex

[AlexTheGrape]

Happy birthday! Nice dedication on studying.

Thanks man! Studying is high priority for me at the moment (exams coming up), so I'm doing what I can.

[AlexTheGrape]

Happy birthday! 

Thanks Cam! I hope you're having a great day as well.

[AlexTheGrape]

Post-Detox Day 153

The past few days have whizzed by, being filled with lots of studying, more studying, and more studying. Mock exams are next week, and I am in full swing trying to revise for them. I’ve gotten into ForceFit 2 to continue developing my physical ability, and I’m enjoying a bit of a challenge.

Today was ‘mufti day’ at school, which means we get to dress in normal clothes to school. As is an unspoken tradition in our school, the final year students come dressed up. We had everything from construction workers to onesies to hazmat suits. It was a fun day in general.

I’ve been starting to substitute time for meditation for simply talking to people or to study. If I don’t get back to previous meditation practices in this time I’ll have to get up earlier in future.

Gratitude journal

I am grateful for all the amazing costumes today.

I am grateful for having writing utensils.

I am grateful for having a water bottle.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Having classes with everybody dressed up in all sorts of costumes was a very fun experience, I’m glad I had the opportunity to see some clever ideas.

Workout/run

Yup.

Meditation

Nope.

Visualisation

Nope.

Daily affirmations

Nope.

Reading + taking notes

Yup.

Getting to bed before 9pm

Nope.

100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination

100% Homework effort this afternoon, but with a little procrastination.

That’s all for today.

[Piotr]

I was hoping for a photo from that mufti day

[Daniel]

Your journal structure is quite smart. How did you come up with this idea?

[Cam Adair]

I was hoping for a photo from that mufti day

If Alex happened to be in a onesie, I will reply with a photo of me in a onesie. This is my final offer.

[AlexTheGrape]

Post-Detox Day 154

Today I’ve been pretty tired, (somebody else’s alarm woke me up at 5:30am), but I still could have gotten to bed earlier to prevent fatigue.

I’ve been doing a lot of organising for an event, and it’s been quite draining and time consuming. I’ll need to make sure to use social media more effectively for that in future.

Otherwise today has been another good one, and mufti day has quickly become just a memory. Luckily you’ll get to see a photo in my next post! :D

I didn’t get round to the meditation stuff again today, and I’m feeling the lack of it as I’ve been a little more stressed.

Gratitude journal

I am grateful for the lamp on my desk.

I am grateful for the close friends I have.

I am grateful for shoes on my feet.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Luckily the one day this whole school term that I’m given money for lunch, there’s a sausage sizzle at school for charity! Awesome use of money and a mean feed.

Workout/run

Yup.

Meditation

Nope.

Visualisation

Nope.

Daily affirmations

Nope.

Reading + taking notes

Yup.

Getting to bed before 9pm

Nope.

100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination

80% homework effort, largely because so much of it was taken up by organising an event.

Time for me to go back to studying

[AlexTheGrape]

I was hoping for a photo from that mufti day 

I was hoping for a photo from that mufti day 

If Alex happened to be in a onesie, I will reply with a photo of me in a onesie. This is my final offer. 

Well we're both in luck, I was in fact wearing a monkey onesie! Here's my chemistry class. See if you can spot me quickly 

[AlexTheGrape]

Your journal structure is quite smart. How did you come up with this idea?

Thanks Daniel. The structure changed over time to accommodate the daily habits I wanted to do, the best ways I found to reflect, and ways to keep happy (e.g gratitude journal). Feel free to copy the structure if you like

[AlexTheGrape]

Post-Detox Day 157

Today hasn’t been great, but you can’t have good days without having bad ones. I went to the NZ national secondary schools fencing competition, but didn’t come out with a result I was happy with. This afternoon I was told that I “looked dead”, and I felt it too. I found it very difficult to get started studying and didn’t get much done. Tomorrow I’ve dedicated to studying and I’ll be going out to the library, so that’ll mean I will likely get loads done.

Gratitude journal

I am grateful for never having needed an amputation.

I am grateful for all my senses being in good condition.

I am grateful for having the opportunity to fence at a national competition today.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

Despite losing to somebody that I was expected to beat, I made sure to take the time to congratulate him personally afterwards. No point being a sore loser.

Workout/run

I had exercise at the competition.

Meditation

Yup.

Visualisation

Yup.

Daily affirmations

Nope.

Reading + taking notes

Nope.

Getting to bed before 9pm

Not last night.

100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination

I didn’t do well at this at all.

What I could have done to make my day better:

I could have meditated again in the day to clear my head, as negative emotions were clouding my judgement.

What I will do differently tomorrow:

I’m going to make sure to utilise all the mental and physical tools I can to put 100% effort into studying.

Photo Stream

I took this one when out for a run recently.

[AlexTheGrape]

Post-Detox Day 158

Today has been valuable as I now feel I’m on track to improving my academic ability further. I spent most of the day studying at the local library, a couple hours of which I spent studying with a friend. Although I didn’t get the goal amount of work I wanted done, I think it was significantly greater than what I would have achieved at home.

Towards the end of the day I developed a simple system to keep myself accountable for schoolwork during the day and with homework. I’m excited to get started with this as I know I need more personal accountability for studying; simply putting a percentage up here doesn’t help as much as I’d like.

I also had some random cravings for my old favourite video game today. I’d largely put it down to my gamer friends saying I was ‘missing out’ this weekend, but I’m over it now so I’m glad those thoughts have passed relatively quickly. I revisited my relapse posts and I had a think about playing guitar again. I believe I simply stopped because I ran out of content to continue practicing, and I never got round to finding new things move on to. Once my exams are over I think it’d be a good idea to get started with playing guitar again, it was a great source of fun.

I’ve done really well with my habits today.

Gratitude journal

I am grateful for public libraries.

I am grateful for stickers.

I am grateful for the springy shoes I’m wearing.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today

I had a think about ways I could reward myself for working, and I came up with one that has worked whilst I was younger. I think this could make a big change, I just need to keep consistent with it.

Workout/run

Yup.

Meditation

Yup.

Visualisation

Yup.

Daily affirmations

Yup.

Reading + taking notes

Yup.

Getting to bed before 9pm

Not last night.

100% Homework effort & minimal procrastination

I didn’t do well at this at all.

What I could have done to make my day better:

I could have meditated again in the day to clear my head, as negative emotions were clouding my judgement.

What I will do differently tomorrow:

I’m going to implement my new accountability system to make the most out of my time to study.

Photo Stream

I took both of these today, the river one from my run this morning. The other it was a great sight for this rainy day.

[Mad Pharmacist]

Hello Alex!

It's nice to see you're doing awesome!

So many Yups.

Greetings, Mad Pharmacist

[Cam Adair]

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about our deal. Onesie coming.

[WorkInProgress]

‌@Cam Adair I was ready to call you out on that

[Cam Adair]

‌@Cam Adair I was ready to call you out on that

Don't worry it's coming! I am a man of my word.

[AlexTheGrape]

Post-Detox Day 160

Just a quick post today. Today I have done reasonably well with my helpful habits; I had a run in the morning and had a short meditation session. The remainder of my free time has been taken up by studying or attempting to study, with a little time for reflection afterwards with my brother. I had fencing this afternoon and made it to the final for my school sabre fencing cup, but lost that bout to come 2^nd.

Yesterday I had another good day. I had an exercise ‘circuit’ that consisted of a range of exercises, and got a good deal of homework done.

Hello Alex!

It's nice to see you're doing awesome!

So many Yups.

Greetings, Mad Pharmacist

Hi Mad Pharmacist! Thanks for checking out my journal. Yeah it's difficult to keep up all these habits with exams so close, but I'm getting done what I can.

Yup, I hope to keep up the yups.

[AlexTheGrape]

‌@Cam Adair I was ready to call you out on that

Don't worry it's coming! I am a man of my word.

No hurry, I'd understand if you're not keen on taking a photo just yet until your surf injury has healed. You're a busy guy!

[AlexTheGrape]

A quick couple of posts for the past two days:

Post-Detox Day 159

Today has been a superb day of study. I went to my school to study despite not being required to (about 99% of students just stay at home and study during this time) as we’re in the midst of doing mock exams; in my year group you’re only required to come to school if you have an exam. I got a total of 6 x 1 hour practice tests done for physics, having completed and marked them all, in addition to some regular studying. It's been the best study day I've had in a long time. I feel I’ve done myself a great service and am the most prepared I can be for my physics test tomorrow.

Post-Detox Day 160

Today was time for my physics exams, and I feel I’ve aced it! There was only one question I couldn’t answer, so I think I’ve done really well. I managed to get some study done in the afternoon, albeit quite a small amount; I normally give myself Fridays off. I’ll be back to studying again tomorrow, I’ve got biology up next.

[WorkInProgress]

you rocking this exams right now. good job putting in the needed work.

[Cam Adair]

Great work Alex!

[AlexTheGrape]

Post-Detox Day 161

Today I did well with my strength workout, and beat my record for pushups. My exercising in the past week has been very consistent, and I hope to continue this into the foreseeable future. I had a rather good day of studying, and I feel I'm very prepared for my biology exam.

Post-Detox Day 162

Today I did my biology exam, and I believe I've done fairly well. I also learned to start with papers I'm more confident with, so that I don't end up not leaving enough time to answer them later on. My afternoon studying was rather poor, but I did have other pressing matters regarding my career applications so I shouldn't beat myself up about it. I had a quick run today, and so I plan to do some much more worthwhile exercise tomorrow.

you rocking this exams right now. good job putting in the needed work.

Great work Alex!

Thanks guys, I appreciate your encouragement!

In a way I'm glad I can dedicate so much of my time and energy to exams, I doubt I've been this effective with my studies before.

[Cam Adair]

Grumpy Penguin.

[WorkInProgress]

and we found an maskot

 

[Cam Adair]

and we found an maskot

 

[AlexTheGrape]

@Cam Adair thank you for sending the onesie pic! I didn't think you would be grumpy about it though.