SpookyBoogie's Journal

[SpookyBoogie]

I'm currently a medical student (somehow made it in despite a lot of obstacles). I've been procrastinating and simply just not putting my nose to the grindstone. I'm hoping if I hold myself accountable I will get better at managing my time and quit playing video games. I want to start playing guitar again, which simply does not happen if video games are available.

 

I'm currently using Pomodoro as my time management technique.

 

Day 1 of detox: I hope to finish all my lectures that I'm behind in. Let's see if I can do it! I'd like to thank Cam for helping me reactivate my account! Please buy his book/donate if you can afford it!

Edited September 6, 2016 by SpookyBoogie

[SpookyBoogie]

Day 1

Hey all. Just wanted to update my day 1. I got some work done, but I spent most of my time planning my next week. I figured since I'm behind a couple lectures, I will plan to finish them over the weekend (Fri-Sun), where I do not have classes. That way, I can stay motivated throughout the week as I keep up with each new lecture.

 

My first set of exams were not that great, and I'm in the danger of having to spend another whole year just to retake one class. Because of this, I'm definitely doing everything I can to change this around.From what I've noticed about myself, the main issue is time management, so I'm doing everything I can to turn this around before my exams 2+ weeks from now.

 

My main challenge now is to fully implement promodoro throughout my whole day. My main issue is that after my 5 minute break, I don't go back to work, and instead, I browse reddit/internet. I need to cull this bad habit. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to start headspace right before I exercise because I am also having trouble keeping my exercise routine.One of the main issues I have is that I wake up, go and browse the internet and then get hungry and just forgo exercising. Instead, I am now going to wake up, set a 5 min timer to check important emails, then headspace and then go straight to exercise. Hopefully this habit will help make sure I exercise everyday. As for the pomodoro, I just need to keep working on it.

 

Well, I'm off the bed. Thanks for reading.

Edited September 6, 2016 by SpookyBoogie

[WorkInProgress]

Hi and welcome!. Actually I would check your emails afterwards. It isn't liek you could do anything and it can really stress you out if smth. important Comes up. Also it keeps you off the Internet for some time so that you can't trip into the browsing trap. Witht eh pomodoro it helps if you spent your breaks actively. Walk around the block, do some Stretches etc. And remember to make bigger breaks after 3-4 pomodoros.

[Cam Adair]

Great to have you here!

[Karma]

I'm looking into both Pomodoro and Headspace since you mentioned them in your posts.  Good luck and welcome

[SpookyBoogie]

Hi and welcome!. Actually I would check your emails afterwards. It isn't liek you could do anything and it can really stress you out if smth. important Comes up. Also it keeps you off the Internet for some time so that you can't trip into the browsing trap. Witht eh pomodoro it helps if you spent your breaks actively. Walk around the block, do some Stretches etc. And remember to make bigger breaks after 3-4 pomodoros.

Thanks for the tips!

Great to have you here!

Thanks for helping me get back on the bandwagon!

I'm looking into both Pomodoro and Headspace since you mentioned them in your posts.  Good luck and welcome

Thanks for the best wishes. I found the pomodoro is pretty helpful if you can follow through with it throughout the day. I'll let you know how headspace goes.

[SpookyBoogie]

Hey all!

 

Day 2 (so far)

Checked emails for 5 mins, then did headspace and meditated for 10 min. Going to exercise in a few min. After meditating I realized that I probably should be drinking a protein shake or something in my 5 min email checking time. It seems that being hungry first thing in the morning does really put me off from exercising.

 

Update: Alright, I managed to get work done before my lab class so I wasn't lost! I plan on sleeping around in 3 hours so my plan is to get my lecture done before I sleep and go over some flashcards!

 

2nd Update: Got my lecture material covered, and even a little bit of extra. I would say today was fairly productive. Although I could have eased into my study routine a little faster in the morning. Let's see how it goes tomorrow. I bet I could squeeze an extra hour of productivity.

Edited September 7, 2016 by SpookyBoogie

[WorkInProgress]

Try it out and see if it helps! These small improvements/experiments are essential.

[Cam Adair]

I'm looking into both Pomodoro and Headspace since you mentioned them in your posts.  Good luck and welcome

Both are great!

2nd Update: Got my lecture material covered, and even a little bit of extra. I would say today was fairly productive. Although I could have eased into my study routine a little faster in the morning. Let's see how it goes tomorrow. I bet I could squeeze an extra hour of productivity.

Great work!

[SpookyBoogie]

Day 3.

Hey folks, here a quick update.

Exercise and headspace in the morning (P90X3 is great!  only 30 minutes a day), and pomodoros as well.

 

Coming home from class I feel like I should have done a pomodoro while my food was cooking. I've got pomodoros in the morning but I can definitely do better in the afternoon.

Overall a good day!

[Cam Adair]

Great job! Build that positive momentum! 

[SpookyBoogie]

Day 4

I now see why it's better to start off doing headspace first (as WorkInProgress suggested) instead of checking e mails. This morning I had my phone on silent and I burned through the timer which threw off my vibe. I skipped my exercise (yoga), but then again I almost always skipped the yoga part of the program. Overall I did get work done, but I feel like I should have gone straight to headspace, then exercise, then shower/breakfast right after. It seems that if I automated all these steps, getting into starting the rest of my day would be faster and I would get more done. I will definitely try this tomorrow.

 

I would say overall day was still a success since I got work done throughout the day. Just need to keep working on pomodoro-ing without any interruption, and going back to work after my longer break.

[WorkInProgress]

I told you so i told you so :P! 

Sry couldn't surpress the dumb site of me. Great hat you manage to do so much work. Keep moving you are doing great!

[SpookyBoogie]

I told you so i told you so :P! 

Sry couldn't surpress the dumb site of me. Great hat you manage to do so much work. Keep moving you are doing great!

Day 5

Thanks! I feel better after quitting games but right now I'm just working on time management/pomodoros. I upped headspace to twice a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It seems to be helping.

Also, where is the button to "like" posts?

Edited September 10, 2016 by SpookyBoogie

[WorkInProgress]

At my screen there is a red button in the bottom left corner of every entry. It says "LIke this".

[Cam Adair]

Headspace is awesome - great job

[SpookyBoogie]

Day 6

Hey folks, here's a quick update. I'm still having a slow start to my morning and that still has to do with my notoriously bad habit of browsing the internet/etc before starting headspace/exercise. I was actually delayed almost 2 hours because I was stuck in some weird loop of on/off browsing, music, youtube habits that caused me not to exercise at all. Because of this, I am now just quitting browsing the internet and only leaving a small portion of time during my pomodoros for browsing reddit, etc. Better to just eliminate the habit of browsing the internet altogether. No more designated  times for browsing, and no more browsing internet during large pomodoro breaks.

So I  woke up around 7:30 AM (I sleep 9-10 PM to around 6-7 AM, so I have a fairly decent consistent sleep schedule) but only started doing real work around 2 PM (I also take too long to eat breakfast and lunch - too much browsing!). I did headspace again around 2 PM and that helped me concentrate and make a plan of limiting my browsing, so I can definitely say headspace is helping for sure. After 2 PM I started to do pretty well in keeping up with my pomodoros after I decided to never browse the internet unless I am on a pomodoro break. So that's a potential of around 5 hours that I am aiming to add into my time tomorrow.

 

1. So even after I quit gaming, I still do fill in my time/waste time browsing reddit/youtube. At least by restricting it to pomodoros I can be more productive but I hope to eliminate the habit completely.

2. I also hope to start off morning tomorrow early and get in those early hours of productivity.  I lost around 5 good hours by not starting the day off right. The key to starting a productive day, I've noticed, is to exercise every day. Overall I did better than any other day but a lot of room for improvement.

3. I have to figure out how to restrict my times to eat my three meals. Otherwise I just end up browsing stuff and it's hard to get back into working. Any tips for this? What should I be doing while eating? I mean I could listen to a lecture but I haven't really been doing that.

 

MUST REMEMBER, HEADSPACE AND THEN EXERCISE, THEN START DAY! NO MORE BROWSING REDDIT/INTERNET UNLESS IN SMALL POMODORO BREAK! LESS THAN TWO WEEKS TO MY EXAMS!!

Edited September 11, 2016 by SpookyBoogie

[Piotr]

I often listen to music while eating, watching youtube videos etc. Because eating a meal (like 5-15 minutes), limits my youtube usage this way and I don't have to resign from listening to my favourite songs.

[SpookyBoogie]

I often listen to music while eating, watching youtube videos etc. Because eating a meal (like 5-15 minutes), limits my youtube usage this way and I don't have to resign from listening to my favourite songs.

Thanks for the tips!

 

Day 7

Had the same issues as yesterday so I used ColdTurkey and just nuked Reddit out of my life for 6 years, I figured I could be more productive in my breaks anyway without reddit. It's also so interesting how automatically I type "reddit" into the browsing bar, showing how much habits really play into our life. Qutting reddit (browsing) and video games should hopefully do the trick. I got work done today, small steps at a time (I blew my whole labor day weekend before I started my adventure here). Only a week and few days until my exams.

The way I study this week will determine whether or not I spend an extra year in medical school.

[Cam Adair]

Non-digital breaks are key. If you hop on the comp/social media for a break, welcome to the rabbit hole.

[SpookyBoogie]

Non-digital breaks are key. If you hop on the comp/social media for a break, welcome to the rabbit hole.

Agreed. Nuking it with cold-turkey definitely worked. I have enough self-control to only browse a little bit of reddit on my phone before bed.

 

Day 8

Overall a very good day, didn't really skip much time before pomodoros, sometimes had certain chores to do where I would have to delay pomodoros by a few min but it wasn't a big deal. Managed to headspace/exercise. Still have a 20 min delay in exercising /headspacing but I'll keep reducing it little by little.

[SpookyBoogie]

Day 9

Rough day, lots of required classes but I managed to get a lot of studying in. Finally caught up in lecture for one of my classes. Only 1 lecture behind in my other class. Now I need to just go over each lecture and make sure I understand the material. Tomorrow is going to be a pretty rough day, lots of required events.

 

Started doing headspace before sleeping as well, I found that it helps a lot. So I do 2x headspace, pomodoro and also exercise. Let's see if I can keep it up tomorrow as well! Really have to be productive over the weekend. No other way I will pass.

[Cam Adair]

Awesome job doing Headspace before bed. Definitely recommended!

[SpookyBoogie]

Day 10 (yesterday)

I woke up an hour earlier and yet I was less productive. It was because I was thrown off my new routine. I didn't do headspace at the beginning so my mind was like a unguided rocket. So headspace does definitely make a difference, it really does help anchor you. Overall a rough day because I had a lot of required events but I still got some work in Will update later with day 11 (just finished headspace and going to start my day).

[SpookyBoogie]

Day 11

Lot of required events, but still got in my studying because of pomodros. Did headspace in the morning and I was focused in the morning. Less than a week for my exams. I really have to pull myself together and get through this. I can't even afford to lose one day of studying. Let's see how tomorrow goes.