Jump to content

NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming

Giblet's Journal


giblets

Recommended Posts

Day 1.

Time to start making an improvement. Cam is right - this is going to be emotional! It's only been a few hours and I'm a bit shaky.

I have been suffering anxiety for over 12 months. I can't even remember the first time I saw a therapist and was diagnosed. I went to one initially because I thought I had PTSD, but it turns out it was stress-anxiety. It was such a relief to know what it was and start developing a plan to fix it. The date was 2015, so maybe 18 months ago.

Anyway I have been using games as a way to escape my anxiety. Nobody online can see me struggle for words, or sweat over the smallest decisions. They just see a character pausing and think you're afk. But it's not solving it. Sure the anxiety isn't there while I am in the game, but eventually I have to go back and be a functioning member of society.

So I am anxious that I am taking my crutch away and putting myself out there on this site to try and hold myself accountable. Sweating again thinking about it. But I am excited at the same time - there is so many more productive things I want to get involved with, and this is holding me back. Getting back to studying is one. Well, the main one. No more having a "5 minute" break from reading, only to play for an hour and forget about study all together, then barely scrape through with a pass mark. I want to excel. I want to be a role model, or at least, someone who is reliable and won't think of excuses not to go out with mates so I can sit at home and play games.

 

My other attempts at cold turkey usually on average last 48-60 hours. I think I try at least once a month, if not once every two weeks. This time is going to work, surely.

 

Here goes!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 4.

 

I need to work on making the daily journal a regular habit, as I haven't written anything lately. Though I am happy to say still no gaming. I guess the reason why I didn't write on Friday (day 2) was when I got home from work, my usual routine was to play some games to unwind or de-stress from what is usually a crappy week. I had the urges when I got home, as usual, but tried to think of something else to do. So I ended up going for a run instead for an hour for about 9km. That's the longest I have run for quite some time so I was exhausted and didn't have the energy to write after that. 

One thought/concern I keep having is strategies for fighting the spontaneous urges during the day to start gaming. I need to read more of Respawn maybe, or watch some of Cam's youtube videos. I haven't got around to either of those yet so I am a bit anxious about what control measures I will need to put in place, either mentally or otherwise. This afternoon will be tough, as it is another common time for me to be playing games on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I am going to  try and focus on study instead.

If I can make it to Tuesday it will be the longest I have gone without playing something for probably years. My excitement of getting on the program has tapered off somewhat which is a bit scary, that's usually when I fall off the bandwagon. I am telling myself that the difference this time is that gamequitters will hold me accountable :) So I don't have an option!

 

I will find some time this afternoon if the urges come back to get reading Respawn for some tips.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 5.

 

I think now this is officially the longest I have gone without gaming for years. I use a habit tracker on my phone for various things and "No Games" is one of the items I mark daily. The last time I went longer than 1 day of not gaming was prior to Dec 16. Looking at that statistic makes me realise how important it is to start this plan now. I am also surprised this current stint lasted over a weekend, which is usually my zone out time and where I enjoyed playing the more lengthy RPGs. I think with the exception of Friday when I got home from work though, I didn't have any urges to play anything. It may be a combination of how busy I am or that this system is really working. I am a bit disappointed in myself that I have not done the worksheets for module 1 of Respawn. I've been meaning to do it for about 4 days. I have at least printed them out now and they are  on my desk when I get a break and/or the urge to complete it.

 

I've read a few other people's journals and they have some really good formats that involve goals, ways to challenge yourself to step outside of comfort zones, and what they are grateful for. Schwing's is a great example. I think it would be an effective way to keep me grounded and break the bigger picture or goal into smaller baby steps that appear more achievable in the short term. I'll have to ponder some goals but I can cover off on some other areas.

 

Today I am grateful for:

  • Being able to come home from work to my son. His smile seems to melt away the bullcrap of work.
  • My health to enable me to keep my marathon training today, as the last few weeks I have been battling viruses and flus.

What I have learnt from today

  • That very few, if any, people I work with can actually be considered friends. It's all a facade. They're colleagues at best.
  • Don't trust the content of a report unless you wrote it yourself!

Goal for tomorrow:

  • To not let work, and specifically the lack of personnel I have in my team, effect me so much emotionally. It does no good.
  • Get the draft of my uni theory assignment submitted.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 6.

 

I am really struggling right now. I am feeling quite depressed with my job and how it is going at the moment, and starting to think I have chosen the wrong time to try the 90 day detox, as I could really use an outlet right now. I have turned to running as my way to escape for the moment, even though some days are really hard to get me moving. The worse part about it all is I am allowing these things to effect me more than I should - or maybe they always effected me this way and my defense system was to play games rather than confront the issue and come up with a new strategy to overcome it.

 

My family time and study is suffering as a result of how I have been going the last two days, I am really hoping tomorrow is an opportunity to relax and give myself a bit of a mental kick. I have set a personal deadline that if I haven't finished my study requirements by Friday then I will ask for a pause this semester. It is quite frankly the last thing I want to do so I am hoping I can channel that to at least get me back on track with my studies.

 

Today I am grateful for:

  • Some of my co-workers being so eager to help me out at work with recent struggles, makes me feel like I am not battling alone, and that my goal of being valued in the workplace is coming to fruition.
  • Our healthcare system and how quickly I could get access to a doctor today. I know many other countries, or even areas within our country, that this is not possible.

What I have learnt from today

  • That I don't think it's possible to escape data mining - its reached such a massive scale now before the majority of society noticed.
  • This is going to be as hard as I thought.

Goal for tomorrow:

  • Get the draft of my uni theory assignment submitted. Yesterday's goal that I have not progressed.
  • Fill out the first worksheet for Respawn. Yet another goal I have not progressed.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 10.

 

Here I am again. There is a few days gap since my last post for several reasons. The first and main reason I lost motivation to write on here is that I realised it's all depressing shit. Every time I get a bit bored or start to feel like a quick game wouldn't hurt, I come on here and read other people's journals hoping to find ideas of how they got through similar moments. Every time I do that, I get self conscious that my journal is just depressing and not worth reading. But I guess that's not really the point of it though when I think about it now, the point is it is an outlet, and an outlet is something I have been looking for a while.

One of the other reasons is that I have been really tired. Once work is done and I have my son in bed I feel like I don't have any energy left lately. I am not sure if it is the lingering effects of a virus I had a few weeks ago or if it is a new one, but it has sapped my energy to do much beyond the bare minimum. Part of me wonders if that is because I have been training so much lately and going for longer and longer runs, another part wonders if it is because of the terrible weather we have been having lately, and part of me wonders if it is all in my head.

I have started to feel more optimistic about work though in the last few days. It is not so much of a struggle to get going in the morning anymore. I am hoping that will keep up for at least a little while, because nobody wants to be locked into doing a job they don't enjoy for the majority of their day. I did manage to complete the worksheet #1 of Respawn, which was really good. When I wrote down why I was playing games and why I wanted to give them up, it was surprising to see how they relate so closely to some of the points Cam mentioned about why we play games.  I also finally submitted a draft of my theory paper to my professor, so fingers crossed I am on the right direction with that, noting the date to withdraw has now passed. I do enjoy learning so much in this subject, it is just because it is so new to me I have to spend so much time reading to understand the concepts. Reading chunks of journals and papers is hard work when you're tired or unwell.

This morning I woke up and wanted to be all productive - and a mate sent me a message about some DLC for a game I used to play. So many urges came flooding back so quickly, I was very surprised! I did the crazy thing of looking it up online, which would have been the first time I have looked at anything game related since I started the detox, and before long I felt myself thinking "just a quick game" or "it won't hurt anybody". Luckily I stopped myself short of clicking "play" on steam. I know I haven't got around to uninstalling everything yet, but I mitigated it by not turning on the machine at all. I can see why uninstalling everything is a good idea. I shut the machine down again, and here I am on gamequitters trying to re-center so I can get on with study. I have a good feeling about today and I don't want to ruin it.

 

Today I was grateful for:

  • My wife's patience for when it took me almost 4 hours to get moving in the morning. I really hope this was a combination of other things and not a virus.
  • The gym nearby my house, where I can seamlessly head off to burn a bit of extra energy without being too much of an impost getting to and from in traffic.

Today I learned:

  • That I don't need to be productive *all* the time, like I keep pushing myself to. It's ok to relax a little bit, especially when it helps my wife or my son. I guess I am not used to this relax notion.

Goals completed today:

  • Theory essay draft submitted to the professor! Three weeks until it is due now, so can't ease up on my progress.
  • First worksheet for Respawn finished and scanned into my phone. I'll keep it there to remind myself of why I am doing this.

Goal for tomorrow:

  • Increase the length of my runs again, this time up to 80 minutes.
  • Start working on my discussion paper submission.
  • To be positive!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 12.

I have started listening to Productivity podcast by Asian Efficiency. I think I have an addiction to podcasts, as every day it seems like I add an extra one to my queue but I can never get through them. I think my queue length averages anywhere from 24-70 hours depending on how busy my days are. Just added the Minimalists as recommended by AlexTheGrape.

Anyway; one of the things they talked about today is that writing a daily journal helps you prioritise what is important in life and what you really value, reflecting on whether you felt accomplished with what progress you made towards them or otherwise. Well, something like that anyway, I was running at the time. So I am going to try and use that as the final piece of motivation to keep up with my daily entries, and hopefully shape my entries into something that mean a bit more and are a lot more positive.

Last two days have been interesting. And by interesting I mean challenging. And by challenging I mean not that much fun. A lot of my time is spent lecturing at the moment so I don't have a great deal of time to progress my personal goals or the smaller jobs at work. As a result my study has suffered somewhat as I have put running above all else. I did get a response back from my lecturer saying I was on track with the draft of my theory essay which was a massive relief. Because I didn't have as much time to dedicate to studying as I would like, I felt maybe I didn't have a solid grasp of the concepts needed for the essay, but I am at least on the right track. Now have two weeks to go to mould it into something that would be worth 20% of my grade. It will be hard work, but it is keeping me distracted from games!

Had a bit of a blowup with my boss at work. I think he is a spud. He obviously disagrees. So have agreed to disagree at the moment. Will definitely be interesting to watch how that develops.

Couple of my friends sent me some links to games they are playing. Opened the links. Surprisingly, did not even care about them. I was a little surprised noting I am only 12 days into the detox. But I think this site is holding me accountable now, so I just thought, no you don't want to start that streak again, what would Cam say (haha). That being said, I have only read module 2 of Respawn, so I should be focusing on that instead. So time poor at the moment, but hey, with the exception of my boss, I feel somewhat happy and I am less inclined to be negative.

Today I was grateful for:

  • My students being patient during several bouts of anxiety hitting me really bad. They could of laughed or pulled me up for it but they seemed to just accept it and move onto the next subject. I might not get very good reviews out of this class but they are helping me get over this barrier in their own little way.
  • The rain holding off until 5 minutes after I got home from my run! Good timing!
  • My wife making me dinner. I haven't been much help around the house lately due to various reasons.

Today I learned:

  • Every has a great story, whether they think it is good or not. Each of these stories have little gems of how to do things differently or a mutual laugh.

Goals completed today:

  • Ran yesterday for 80 minutes, then today for 50. Today's was really hard as my legs were still like concrete, but it did feel a lot easier on the lungs. Hopefully that is a good sign.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Make a start for my discussion paper submission. At least make a start man!
  • Start a pushup routine, even if it is just one set a day.
  • Prioritise my goals to use my limited time to focus on the ones that are important.
  • Implement a Productivity tip from Asian Efficiency; first one being drink 2 glasses of water as soon as I wake up.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Do some handyman work around the house that the wife has been telling me about for weeks.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 13.

Unlucky number 13; if you're superstitious I guess! Today was very uneventful, but very busy. The work day was a blur, but it wasn't bad. One day closer to the weekend! I only have one more day of instructing and then it's back to my normal duties, which have been piling up. Last year I would have been stressed out about it and start working overtime to catch up, but this year I refuse to overwork myself, which is how I got anxiety in the first place. My memory is still very bad, but at least now I can have conversations with people for longer than 15 seconds without trying to say things like my own name.

The "GTD" podcast by Asian efficiency today was interesting. They discussed a few apps to track your workflow and to do list. They were To.do and omni-something. I think I will stick to Wunderlist for now, it seems to work for me, even if it is a simple to do list that I can share with people. Still hunting for an expense tracker app or website so I can monitor my spending more efficiently - cannot seem to find a decent one at all. I get so frustrated that it shouldn't be this hard and give up, only to be reminded of how I want one when my credit card bill arrives. I could have identified a great market/opportunity to write or create a tool myself; but I just don't have time. I guess I will need to try and set up my spreadsheet again, unless someone have a good recommendation?

Today I was grateful for:

  •  

Today I learned:

  • That in the age of politically correctness, that we have lost a lot of freedom to do fun activities or be spontaneous, because we are so risk adverse.

Goals completed today:

  • Implemented drinking 2 cups of water as soon as I wake up. I don't really feel like it made that much of a difference to be honest.
  • Managed to not send any angry e-mails. Instead just walked away and returned later. I need to do this more often.
  • Did one set of knee pushups today. My shoulder held up quite well, starting to build confidence in it. It is definitely mostly a mental challenge. Interesting to see how my shoulder feels tomorrow.

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Did not start my discussion paper. By the time I finish exercising and cleaning up after dinner I am on this site and too tired to concentrate.
  • Prioritise my goals to use my limited time to focus on the ones that are important. I really need to do this, but I need my wife's support. Maybe on the weekend.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Wake up at least an hour early to find some references my lecturer said I should read.
  • Start my discussion paper!
  • Stay game free! It will make it two weeks!
  • Place all my game accessories and hardware in a box and place in the shed.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Turn off push notifications on my phone for at least e-mail.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Do some handyman work around the house that the wife has been telling me about for weeks.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm still here! It has been a whirlwind four or so days since my last entry, which has included 2 doctors and 3 hospital visits. Family is not having a good run of health at the moment! On the bright side is that my son should get out of hospital tomorrow. At least it hasn't dampened his spirits! Had a couple of urges to play the last few days as I kept thinking "I just need a break, GameQuitters would understand" but so far have not relapsed!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day ?? Maybe 19.

So to be honest, I am not entirely sure what day I am up to now. There has been a big gap since I last wrote an entry and it has been a whirlwind period. Long story short, when I picked my son up from childcare on Thursday he had a swollen face, so I took him to a couple of doctors before finally being admitted to the hospital for three days in order to get antibiotics via drip. That was a harrowing experience that I do not want to go through again, but I am sure I will. My wife also had a bout of gastro, which I then caught on the weekend and am still trying to shake. Has not been a good run for us in the health department.

On top of that I have had a very busy few days at work. Feels like I have not had a chance to sit down and have a few moments to myself and contemplate things for a week. As a result my studies are suffering badly and my performance at work isn't exactly something that I am proud of lately, I have become quite short with people with problems at the moment. Not a sign of a great leader. I hope the stress will lift once I get back up to date with my studies, though I have absolutely no idea how I am going to achieve that in the next two weeks. Probably by not sleeping.

The silver lining in this cloud I guess is I haven't had much time to play games. I did think about it a few times when I was really down on the weekend but managed to keep myself distracted enough that they passed. I guess if I still valued them highly I would use what little time I have and waste it on them. Need to use my scraps of time to stay focused and centered, and then relax a bit more when this stressful period passes.

Today I was grateful for:

  • The leadership training that work is springing for. Conducted another survey/reflection today and my self-awareness and emotional intelligence is through the roof compared to 2+ years ago. This is helping on many different levels.

Today I learned:

  • That everyone seems to have the same gripes and concerns no matter how experienced or far along they are in their careers. I am quite surprised by this because I figure they would be a bit more proactive after being in the organisation for a while. I am obviously mistaken.

Goals completed today:

  • I have turned off the majority of notifications on my phone now. I need to finish going through and disabling the last few. It was also an opportunity to clean out some apps that I don't use anymore, with the aim of holding onto my phone a bit longer. I find I am a lot less distracted without the notifications, which is the whole aim.
  • Restarted running after having almost a week off due to spending all my time in the hospital. Was really hard going but reminded me of why I am doing it, and made me realise I think running is the outlet I have been craving for a while.

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Did not start my discussion paper. There is not enough time in the day. I am going to have to start cutting back on sleep to get on with this.
  • Prioritise my goals. Have not talked to my coach for over a week.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • I am away with work for a few days, so find time to reflect and stay centered.
  • Not just start my discussion paper, but I have to submit it or I will probably fail.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Read more about mind mapping. This sounds weird but interesting.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Do some handyman work around the house that the wife has been telling me about for weeks.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I've been putting off this journal entry for a while. It's been 7 days since my last entry, which would make it about day 25. Except it's not.... because I relapsed on Friday. So I managed to make it to 22 days in total. I had a few beers with my work colleagues to celebrate Easter (or surviving to get to Easter!), and when I got home I had the house to myself... with the prospect of 4 days off... so plenty of time to do whatever I wanted....

I don't regret playing games on Friday at all, because I have felt so stressed lately that I have felt on the verge of breaking. So much so that I have a meeting with my boss today to talk about some of it. A combination of my son being in hospital, the wife being sick, then I caught their virus, too much work, not having much money, and falling further and further behind on my study. But what I do regret is the preoccupation that occurred in the aftermath. This has always been the source of my problems, is that I struggle to think of anything else other than games. So I started dreaming about them again, I started thinking about them again for the majority of the day, and it began impacting my productivity and self-improvement. I can see now about all those 'connections' in your brain (cannot remember if that is the exact terminology) are/can be reset after 90 days and why it is so important.

I thought about hiding it from Gamequitters.com for a while, and had a mental struggle as a result over it, which is another contributing factor of why I have been avoiding this entry. In the end though, I decided there was no point, as all I would be doing is hiding it from myself. Plus is defeats the whole point that I am here on this site - to hold myself accountable, and to get the help of other people to hold myself accountable. I wonder if I had an accountability partner if there might have been a different outcome? Who knows. I couldn't stop thinking about Myhrion's comment of of me not relapsing during the hospital stint, and how I now wasn't doing a good job. I felt so bad. Did think about sending her a message but convinced myself no; you're just feeling sorry for yourself. Suck it up. Sometimes you disappoint people.

So... how do I recover from this? I am looking at this as a learning experience. As something to propel me forward and make me a better person as a result. That old saying that I quiet often use at work - 'it is not about the mistakes you made, but how you recover from them'. I was so annoyed with my preoccupation over the Easter weekend that I forced myself to stay productive or constructive all weekend, with no exceptions. I did manage to get quite a lot done; I finally cleaned out the garage and can now get our car into the garage. That was a job that was waiting to be done for 4 months but I had been too busy gaming or other. Very happy with how it is now, except I scratched the car quite badly driving into it. I was devastated. More money I am going to have to spend now to get that fixed. I am glad that it was me that did it though and not my wife, as now I can only get angry at myself, and I am angry at myself anyway.

I also did quite a log of gardening. I cleaned our patio so now its usable, and planted a few plants in pots; lime tree, lemon tree, feijoa tree, mint, basil, thyme, aloe vera, passionfruit and carrots. I also set up my hammock in the middle of all the plants after finding it in the shed. I am going to use it as my new meditation zone, and endeavour to spend time sitting out there and recenter myself when I have any urges again, or if I can't control my emotions. I am looking forward to it. I might sit out there and listen to some podcasts as well with a cup of tea, or some affirmations in the morning. The possibilities are great.

I did some more reading, finishing the Buddhism for Beginners book. I am tempted to read it again to really get some of the concepts to sink into my head, but the other part of me thinks there are plenty more Buddhism books out there that I could and should read to help with that, to ensure that I get multiple points of view. It definitely is a way of life for me, but I think I have fallen off the path in the last few months as I have not had the time to read or practice it. I need to get back into this. So, I have started using a habit tracker now to try and force myself to do at least a little every day, even if that is only reading a paragraph or two.

What else did I do... I set up a new budget spreadsheet to make it easier to track my spending. I used to keep track of it all by a spreadsheet but it was so unwieldy because I was trying to get so much information from it. I jumped to using apps over the last year or so, but a combination of apps not doing exactly what I was after and some failing entirely, taking all my data with it, means I am back giving spreadsheets some serious consideration. I have a new idea now though, I do want there to be only one spot to enter my spending and the rest of the sheets to auto-fill, no matter how complicated that is. So I am using drop down boxes of lists to break everything down, and keeping the data entry sheet as basic as possible. It is looking good so far, I have a few pie graphs. Next step will start rebuilding the 'forecasts' that I used to have, that would show how much money it thinks you will spend in a week/month/year - it was very humbling and checked a lot of my spending. Anyway this will be a massive project as I have to start from scratch again but I hope to do a little each day. Heck I might even find my old spreadsheet, which would be good, as it would be a great source of data.

But what I didn't do, was study! This week is now going to be stressful as a result. I have two assignments due now, both by the end of this week, so it is going to be a lot of work. But, I have to suck it up and work on it. I think it is achievable, I am really enjoying the content of the course, which is a refreshing change from the previous courses I have done, but it just needs large chunks of time to get through the reading. I have noticed how the readings are impacting my daily conversations and life, and I now have more stuff to talk to other people about, which I am thankful for. No more grasping at straws because all I had was games to talk about.

So, with that "bullshit off my brain" as Steve Austin would say, my usual big points of my journal:

 

Days:

  • Game Free: 1 (17Apr)
  • Facebook Free: 1 (17Apr)
  • Alcohol Free: 0  (18Apr)
  • Running Training: 1 (17Apr)

Today I was grateful for:

  • Wunderlist. I have begun investing more time into getting my life organised on this app, and I think it is returning wonders. I try to write everything and anything down as I usually have random thoughts during the day. It lets me to keep on thinking and doing my usual daily tasks, without losing any time or stressing later trying to remember things. It is quite easy to enter small tasks on my phone when I carry it around and then pull them up on my computer later and add notes or extra detail.

Today I learned:

  • Extentialism. Cam tweeted about an article where they said that Extentialism, NoFap and Gamequitters should join forces as they have all got similar aims. It sounds exactly what I am trying to do, so I definitely need to do some reading about it. I listened to the Sober Guy's podcast with Cam as well, which he described the story of Joe (I think it was) who used his daughter as motivation to give up gaming as he used to get angry when he had to pause his game all the time to look after her. This is the source of why I wanted to give up with my son.

Goals completed today:

  • Spent a lot of time reflecting and I think I have had an improved effort to stay centered after the Friday relapse. I feel a lot better as a result.
  • Did a lot of handyman work around the house, so now I should have some well earned brownie points with the wife (haha).

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Did not start my discussion paper. There is not enough time in the day. I am going to have to start cutting back on sleep to get on with this. I am on the verge of failing unless I get this under control.
  • Prioritise my goals. Have not talked to my coach for two weeks.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Submit at least one discussion point to the online forum.
  • String together 2 daily journal entries in a row, I think I have only achieved this once or twice.
  • String together 2 days that I got up early to get some stuff done in the quiet hours.
  • Skip the rest day; run again. You need to.
  • Meditate in the hammock.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • I woke up an hour early to work on this journal. That was a GTD tip that they do with their writing, wake up early so there are no distractions. I think it has been effective.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Submit both my tertiary study assignments.
  • Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
  • Keep my spending under $100 for the week.
  • Get a haircut!

 

I definitely feel better now. Thanks team.

Edited by giblets
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 Apr 17.

So here we are, two days in a row making a journal entry. First time since Day 13 on 5th April. I guess it isn't that long ago, but it feels like eons ago. Yesterday was really good, I think waking up early to get my entry out of the way ticked off a to do item in my habit tracker straight away. Not sure if it correlates or not, but I coming only 2 tasks short of ticking every single target on my habit tracker, the only 2 I missed was read and language training. I spent my night reading journals for my study so didn't leave any time to read for my own enjoyment. I will try to jam it in today. I didn't get any language training done, like many others here I have Duolingo that I have been trying to use. I used it quite heavily last year but this year I haven't touched it at all, and I was not interested in getting to it last night. Maybe that is another task I need to do in the morning.

Woke up early again today this morning. Wanted to see if I could get it done for a few days in a row. Lets see if I have a good day again today, but I am feeling a lot more tired than yesterday, but that may be more as a result of cutting my sleep down from 8 hours to 6.5 hours. 

Preoccupation has not come back at all, I am very happy with that. I think it is because I forced myself to be so productive as punishment for myself over the weekend that it pushed games out of my mind, at least for a little while. I think it is having an effect on my wife though, as our relationship isn't great at the moment. I think (or at least, I hope) we are just going through a stressful few weeks (or at this point it is more likely to be closer to a month) and can bounce back when it is all over.

Days:

  • Game Free: 2 (17Apr)
  • Facebook Free: 2 (17Apr)
  • Alcohol Free: 1 (18Apr)
  • Running Training: 2 (17Apr)

Today I was grateful for:

  • The flexibility of my job, which allowed me to go run a personal errand in the afternoon without any impact. I still have a boatload of work to do, but I'll never get to the end of that pile anyway.

Today I learned:

  • "What's Another Perspective?" It was the topic of the Affirmation Pod by Jusie Ong. I didn't think it was that helpful at the time, but once I got to work and was presented the first problem, it came to mind straight away. So I asked that of my team, and surprisingly I think I defused the situation. It may have been nothing more than a laugh, but it least it let them pause for a second and realise their issue was not as big as they thought.
  • That I am so conditioned now to listening to podcasts at 2x speed that when I went back to normal speed to play a podcast to someone else (Steve Austin's), it sounded like everyone was drunk and I couldn't stand it.

Goals completed today:

  • Started a discussion point. I wanted to get it submitted last night but ran out of time. Really want to put it in today to get rid of some stress.
  • Did 2 daily journal entries in a row! Boom.
  • Woke up early 2 days in a row.
  • Skipped the rest day and ran 6km. Though didn't realise the interval training had extended out to 4minutes before I could rest, which wrecked me.

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Did not start my discussion paper. 
  • Prioritise my goals. Have not talked to my coach for two weeks.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Meditate in the hammock.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Submit a discussion point. Try to either start a second one or do a bit more studying.
  • Kick start a duolingo streak.
  • Hit the pool to stretch out after my 2 days of running. Couldn't even stand up last night.
  • Meditate in the hammock.
  • Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Try to talk to my leadership coach.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Use Do Not Disturb mode on my phone a lot more, or leave my phone by my bed for a while to break the "must always have it" syndrome.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Submit both my tertiary study assignments.
  • Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
  • Keep my spending under $100 for the week.
  • Get a haircut!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey man just reading some journals before bed (bit of motivation!) and wanted to say that it's great to read such an honest write up of your first few weeks. Well done on keeping up the running and coping with all the stress. Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey man just reading some journals before bed (bit of motivation!) and wanted to say that it's great to read such an honest write up of your first few weeks. Well done on keeping up the running and coping with all the stress. Good luck!

Thanks mate! It's been a crazy few weeks from so many angles but I really have felt (or at least the last few entries) that it has really helped me stay centered and focused by writing it all down. I was always against journals when I was younger, probably because I thought I was invincible, but now I see it as a great outlet, which is great, since gaming is generally the outlet of choice.

Good luck on your journey!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 Apr 17.

Here we are, 3 days into the constant journal entries. I am not feeling great today though, which I think is because I am really dehydrated. I was feeling a little bit "off" last night, and this morning I have that hangover headache, so I obviously didn't drink enough water yesterday. It is kind of obvious though, since I did two days of big runs in a row, and I have been teaching so much that I haven't had opportunities to drink water. I haven't been following the GTD tip of drinking 500ml of water as soon as I wake up either, I did it for a few days but then stopped, even with putting in slices of lime. Time to get back on that wagon.

Made a conscious decision not to go for a run yesterday, not because I was too lazy or just cbf, but because I prioritised it out. Rather than taking of the perspective of "not enough time in the day" which I used to take, I am trying to take the mindset of there is 24 hours in the day, I just need to prioritise what is important enough to get completed. Knowing that today is a 14 hour work day for me, and that my study situation is reaching crisis point, I decided to spend all of last night after work studying. It was somewhat successful, as I managed to submit my first discussion point for this week, I have one more discussion point to do tomorrow, and then my assignment is due Sunday. I am quite thankful for this journey right now, as if I was gaming on top of this in my "breaks" (a 10 minute break usually turns into a 2 hour break because I just have to finish the level....) would have either made this impossible, or rushed. I am starting to get very interested in the content of this subject, which I found initially as overwhelming due to being an entirely new topic.

Tried to think of something else I could do on my self improvement journey that I could substitute the running for, and all the discussions of Duolingo came to mind. So I fired it up in my lunch break and powered through a couple of lessons, probably the first time in six months or more. I think I have opened the Duolingo app for the first time on my new phone, which I bought in about Octoberish last year. It's just been sitting there staring at me from my home screen for that long. Anyway, I was quite surprised how much I remembered. I had to start at the basics level because all the bars were empty (no surprise there), and within 2 attempts at the assessment I was at 100%. Not bad! That bagged me 20 xp, and that was the extent of my motivation for it. I am amazed that Schwing and the team smash out 50 xp per day, that's some serious effort. Maybe I will work up to that, but I am happy with 20 xp at the moment. I did bet 5 ingots on the 7 day streak, hopefully that will give me some motivation to keep working on it.

Did a bit of research into existentialism after Cam's tweet earlier in the week. I assumed it might have been some kind of self-improvement belief or philosophy, but it was quite full on. I don't think I am onboard with it at all, but that being said all I have done is read the wikipedia page and watched a 5 minute intro video on youtube. The tools that Buddhism has provided me on controlling my emotions (read: anger) are too valuable to deviate from.

Not entirely sure if I will allocate time to this journal over the next 4 days as I work on my studies which is quite urgent, and completely my own creation, but I will endeavour to use it as a break. I found some really good journals and/or introduction posts which are great, Egon and MegaTiny, so I look forward to tracking those as well, but I need to be careful not to spend too much time trawling the forums! I get addicted to things way too easily. I thought it might be a personality type that results in people getting addicted easily, but my Meyers-Briggs test and personality type is the total opposite of Cam's, so maybe there is no typical type.

Days:

  • Game Free: 3 (17 Apr)
  • Facebook Free: 3 (17 Apr)
  • Alcohol Free: 2 (18 Apr)
  • Running Training: 0 (Break 19 Apr)
  • Language Training: 1 (19 Apr)

Today I was grateful for:

  • The relapse I had last Friday. Sounds weird I know! But the relapse jolted me into my current self improvement spree which I think is going to get me across the line with my study deadlines in the next 4 days (or rather I hope that it does). I know this stress is self-created by not studying as much as I should in the preceding weeks, but the horse has bolted, now the focus is about recovering, and I am grateful for my current mindset which I can contribute to the guilt of preoccupation the day after the relapse.

Today I learned:

  • The only thing I can think of is relating to my studies. I will reflect on this more today, surely there is something I have learned, but just can't think of it right now. Disappointed with this.

Goals completed today:

  • Submitted discussion point #1 to the forums of my study. Really happy with the product, which is a surprise, usually I am unhappy with my study efforts.
  • 3 daily entries in a row! Also have established getting up early into my routine, I am completing a lot of tasks in that extra hour in the morning just like GTD said I would. Need to stop questioning so much.
  • Started language training again! Focus is to build the habit rather to go hard too early.
  • Meditated in my hammock for a few minutes over lunch with a cup of tea. Need to build on this but it was very enjoyable.

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Did not hit the pool to stretch out. I did think about it, but the effort required to get to the pool and clean up afterwards I thought could be better spent on my studies, which I think it was.
  • Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Maintain language streak. The extended working day means my goal options are limited.
  • Listen to a GTD podcast. Write down the tool of the day and include it in my next journal entry in order to implement into my routine.
  • Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
  • Drink more water and less tea during the day!
  • Call a friend or family member.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Go back to drinking a lot more water.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Submit both my tertiary study assignments. (1/2 of first one completed!)
  • Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day. (have hit a snag on the function front, consider asking gamequitters for help)
  • Keep my spending under $100 for the week. (spent $25 so far)
  • Get a haircut!
  • Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Try to talk to my leadership coach.
Edited by giblets
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 Apr 17.

Dehydrated again today. I thought I would overcome this today as I drank a boatload of water yesterday, but obviously not enough. I need to work on this some more, as it makes it harder to think and concentrate on things like this journal!

Yesterday was interesting, as Starcraft was released for free. Spent the afternoon reminiscing about all the old sound bytes of the units, which funny at the time, I regret now. I had a little bit of preoccupation for a while, and the only reason I think I moved beyond it so quickly is because I was so busy at work yesterday. I am thankful for that long working day, as if I was at home there would be a risk that I would want to fire it up and play a few rounds. I will have to keep an eye on this. I didn't find out from any gaming forums or sites either, it came up in my engadget feed. I really enjoy watching what engadget is up to, but if they keep doing gaming articles that I am going to read, then I need to find an alternative technology new source. Any suggestions?

Looking forward to the next 72 hours, which is really weird. Today I intend talking to my leadership coach and submitting my second discussion point online, and then the two days after that are going to be non-stop studying for my assignment due Sunday. Usually I would hate this, but I think I am excited as a way to prevent from playing games for another two days as I really don't have time to play them, and usually I would use them in my breaks, which would result in no study being done.

Days:

  • Game Free: 4 (17 Apr)
  • Facebook Free: 4 (17 Apr)
  • Alcohol Free: 3 (18 Apr)
  • Running Training: 0 (Break 19 Apr)
  • Language Training: 2 (19 Apr)

Today I was grateful for:

  • The long day at work, which handcuffed me from doing anyhing gaming-related, and forced me to stay focused on work. I'd rather be focused on my study, but beggars can't be choosers.

Today I learned:

  • That the app I am using to stay productive and keep my mind on track - Wunderlist - is being axed by Microsoft. Devastated.

Goals completed today:

  • Maintained language training, establishing my first streak for the year! Doing it at lunch time is definitely the right choice.
  • Managed to start reading again. Did one chapter of Buddhism for Dummies and one chapter of Karl Pilkington's latest book.

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Call a friend or family member. Reached out to some friends to line up a phone conversation but they didn't respond.
  • Did not drink enough water, did not drink 500ml as soon as I woke up.
  • GTD podcast. Didn't have the opportunity to disconnect from my environment and listen to a podcast due to work. 

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Maintain language streak. I have 5 ingots riding on this.
  • Listen to a GTD podcast. Write down the tool of the day and include it in my next journal entry in order to implement into my routine.
  • Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
  • Drink more water and less tea during the day!
  • Call a friend or family member.
  • Talk to my leadership coach.
  • Submit my second discussion point.
  • Create a list in my budget spreadsheet of what functions or reports I would like, which should shape my goal of inserting one per day.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Go back to drinking a lot more water (again).

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Submit both my tertiary study assignments. (1/2 of first one completed!)
  • Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day. (have hit a snag on the function front, consider asking gamequitters for help)
  • Keep my spending under $100 for the week. (spent $30 so far)
  • Get a haircut!
  • Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Try to talk to my leadership coach.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 Apr 17.

Another busy day. Tried to mix up work and study but it didn't really play out that well, I ended up working much more than I wanted to, and got virtually zero study done. Puts a bit of pressure onto today, now 48 hours left to get both assignments completed. I did get some social invites out this weekend and yesterday, but I declined them all due to study commitments. I am proud of this, usually I think I can mix the two but after a couple of beers I can't study at all and it's a wasted day. The good thing is nobody got upset or questioned it so I am not annoyed by it or anything.

Woke up early again this morning even though it is Saturday, to try and knock off as many things off my habit tracker as early as possible before focusing on study for the rest of the day. I have done a lot of that so far, but for some reason I left this entry until last. I think because yesterday I really struggled with the entry because I felt so dehydrated and today I was preoccupied with a formula for my budget spreadsheet that I just HAD to put in - as I was wrestling with it for a few days. The good news is it worked, so now I have to do 2 less clicks per transaction entry. My ultimate goal is to only have to enter 2 bits of data for every entry so its quick and easy and I don't find it painful, but still get all the analysis that I want that I had set up in my old budget spreadsheet. It's already achieving it's aim, as it displays totals of where all my money has been going and identifies I am spending too much in some areas, such as spending 20% of my paycheck in April on electronics... that's an extreme number. Need to bring that down for sure.

Other than that, very little of interest went on yesterday. I went for another run, and I am finding the thing that is holding me back is my legs. I finished the run not puffed or exhausted at all, but my legs were pillars of concrete. I really need to fix that somehow. My average pace per km is now sub-7 minutes, which is an improvement from when I have started, but I am not entirely sure if my legs are feeling better or getting better. Going to register for a city run in a couple of months which is 14km, that will be the test of how I am going!

MUST nail study today.

Days:

  • Game Free: 5 (17 Apr)
  • Facebook Free: 5 (17 Apr)
  • Alcohol Free: 4 (18 Apr)
  • Running Training: 1 (21 Apr)
  • Language Training: 3 (19 Apr)

Today I was grateful for:

  • Stackoverflow. I have only just discovered this site, and it basically gave me the formula I needed for my budget spreadsheet. I need to check out this website more, there might be some other great nuggets around.
  • The weather! Weather at the moment is so conducive to getting things done, and has been holding out for the majority of the week. I hope it holds out for another week so I can get back on track with my running, and not get sick at the same time!

Today I learned:

  • That old consoles, while I knew were collected by some people, are astronomically expensive. Some of them are worth the same as modern Xboxes. That's crazy. I wonder if investors see it as a legitimate area for them, or if because there are so many variables to keep them working that it isn't seen as feasible.

Goals completed today:

  • Completed language training again. My 5 ingots is going strong.
  • Called multiple friends to chat about random stuff. Really happy I did that, plus it meant I invested less time of messaging and staring at my phone. I have only become aware of how much this annoys me lately when people keep doing it at the dinner table, so I want to avoid it as much as possible.
  • Drank a boatload of water, and felt a lot better this morning. Need to ensure I repeat it again today.
  • GTD Podcast. It was about the "Black Belt GTD". To be honest didn't really like it, but I was trying to work at the same time so maybe I need to listen to it again without distractions.
  • Created a list in my budget spreadsheet of what functions or reports I would like, which should shape my goal of inserting one per day.

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Call a friend or family member. Reached out to some friends to line up a phone conversation but they didn't respond.
  • Did not drink enough water, did not drink 500ml as soon as I woke up.
  • GTD podcast. Didn't have the opportunity to disconnect from my environment and listen to a podcast due to work. 
  • Submit my second discussion point.
  • Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Maintain language streak. I have 5 ingots riding on this.
  • Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
  • Submit my second discussion point.
  • Work on my assignment.
  • Rebuild running training streak.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Full screen my word editor and set all devices to 'do not disturb' to focus on study. It takes 20 minutes (I think) to rebuild focus after being distracted, so aim to remove the distractions.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Submit both my tertiary study assignments. (1/2 of first one completed!)
  • Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
  • Keep my spending under $100 for the week. (spent $30 so far)
  • Get a haircut!
  • Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Try to talk to my leadership coach. Prioritise my goals.
Edited by giblets
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 Apr 17.

For some reason I keep waking up in the morning and thinking about someone asking me what I do for a living, and I always respond with "I'm a healer". What the heck? Why does my brain think this? Obviously there is a massive connection somewhere in my brain that I have reinforced over the years of games. The reason I can guarantee its from gaming is usually the next thing that flicks into my brain is my World of Warcraft character, a druid, which was a healer. I haven't played WoW for probably a year, since my son arrived and I could no longer devote time to being on a headset and giving my complete focus to a dungeon or whatever, so why does my brain keep thinking that? I really would like to work this out.

Yesterday was really good. My wife went out with the day with my son in order to let me study all day. I only left the house once, and that was to go for a run at about 3pm because I was going crazy of sitting staring at a screen for so long, all the words were blurring together and no longer sinking in. The rest of the day was reading journals non stop. The good news is I completed my last discussion point online. I would like to do more work on those, but I don't have time, I need to focus on my assignment now which is due today. Sadly the discussion point took an extra day than I was budgeting for, so now I only have one day left for my assignment. I guess the silver lining is I had a framework for the assignment already and 1000 words completed, so I only need to add an extra 500 and fine tune it, but it means now that I am not going to get it to the standard I wanted. This is always my problem, but I blamed it on games, this time I don't really have an excuse. I should of stopped running for the last week or so to save my energy for studying, but hindsight is 20/20.

Yesterday I also fell into the trap of watching a couple of speed run videos on youtube of arcade games. I am glad I didn't relapse into gaming, but I am disappointed I wasted some time on this, not just when I watched the videos but the inevitable preoccupation that followed. I lost maybe 2 hours of productivity as a result which is disappointing. I think the trigger to do this was talking to a few mates about games, a few of them called me for life advice early in the morning and we touched on games, and that was all it took. It takes so little effort for me to fall back into that hole so I really need to keep an eye on it.

Probably will not make a journal entry tomorrow - I am travelling to see my family for ANZAC Day on Tuesday. I think I will be able to get back to an entry on Tuesday night when I get home. It's possible I could get an entry tomorrow as I am taking my laptop to keep studying, but I am not promising anything. A lot of my habits I am trying to build with my tracker will have to be paused tomorrow as well. Hopefully the impact will be minimal.

Days:

  • Game Free: 6 (17 Apr)
  • Facebook Free: 6 (17 Apr)
  • Alcohol Free: 5 (18 Apr)
  • Running Training: 2 (21 Apr)
  • Language Training: 4 (19 Apr)

Today I was grateful for:

  • GTD Podcast, again, and that it's free. They have different interviews with various people, business owners, entrepreneurs, etc. They tend to always say/recommend the same thing - today it was about closing your inbox again and avoiding distractions on your phone. Love it.
  • My wife spending the whole day out of the house so I could study. I know this isn't something she wanted to do, and would of impacted my son's nap schedule, but it let me absorb so much study material.
  • My massive balcony that is letting me experiment with gardening. Always loved gardening, I think I got that from my Grandpa and my Dad, but I have never been good at it.

Today I learned:

  • How ridiculously easy it is for me to get preoccupied with games. This is dangerous.

Goals completed today:

  • Completed language training again. My 5 ingots is going strong.
  • Talked to friends on the phone and gave a bunch of life advice. Happy with this. I think it helps me more than them.
  • Drank a boatload of water, and felt a lot better this morning. Need to ensure I repeat it again today.
  • GTD Podcast. Ep 28 - "Mind Mapping". I think this mind mapping made more sense to me than the last one, but still need to put effort into it.
  • Submitted discussion point #2.

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Maintain language streak. I have 5 ingots riding on this.
  • Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
  • Submit my assignment.
  • Get a haircut, hippy.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Wait 24 hours before replying to emails.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Submit both my tertiary study assignments. (first one completed!)
  • Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
  • Keep my spending under $100 for the week. (failed!)
  • Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Try to talk to my leadership coach. Prioritise my goals.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 Apr 17.

So I'm considering taking my journal offline. I think some of the topics I want to write (and think about) during this process are TL;DR for this forum, so it may be a good idea just to keep it offline in a word or excel document. I will reflect on this again today but that is definitely what I am leaning towards. I will include it in my weekly goals to make a decision by the end of the week.

So the last 48 hours were really good, but again really busy. I realised last night that maybe I have overloaded myself a little bit since my last relapse, and I might be wearing myself out. I will need to rethink how much I am trying to achieve, maybe on the 27th I will have a chance to sit down and reflect on this. I am very happy with what I have achieved though, but I think I need to rest a bit.

So the "I'm a healer" thing is still happening, and it's quite random when it occurs. It's frustrating, mainly because I think I am letting it get to me too much because I don't know what is causing it, which is a bit of preoccupation in itself. I need to do some more research to see how I can break this crap.

Caught up with a mate yesterday for lunch, and the topic of discussion did cover games from the last couple of weeks, as he is primarily the main person I play games with (or used to). I was a bit worried about this, I thought afterwards I might have to battle with preoccupation, but it didn't follow. Very happy about that. I wonder if that is a combination of my self-improvement mentality after the relapse, or whether I have cut my gaming so low, even without achieving the 90 day detox, that I am no longer seeing it as something I need to enjoy myself. Who knows, but I am happy with it nonetheless. If only I could break the "I'm a healer" thing next....

Days:

  • Game Free: 8 (26 Apr)
  • Facebook Free: 0 (25 Apr)
  • Alcohol Free: 0 (25 Apr)
  • Running Training: 0 (25 Apr)
  • Language Training: 6 (19 Apr)

Today I was grateful for:

  • Open source software. I have become such a fan of it in the last 7+ years, that I probably should do something about it, such as contribute somehow or make a donation.

Today I learned:

  • Raisin toast. Talk about a baby distractor!

Goals completed today:

  • Maintained language streak. Got my 5 ingots for achieving a week streak, and then immediately doubled down to keep going.
  • Assignment submitted! Not happy with its quality, but it is a step in the right direction. Now to start on the next one.
  • Got a haircut!

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Maintain language streak.
  • Work out how to select a date range and corresponding cells from a spreadsheet.
  • Sort all my electronic peripherals to work out what I need to order for my laptop project.
  • Put all game accessories in the shed.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Still the same as I haven't had a chance to implement it yet - Wait 24 hours before replying to emails.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
  • Keep my spending under $100 for the week.
  • Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Try to talk to my leadership coach. Prioritise my goals.
  • Start my research essay.
  • Start building a timelapse project for the garden.
  • Start to achieve some of these goals so it's not a stale copy and paste!
Edited by giblets
Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 Apr 17.

Haven't progressed looking into a format I like to take my journal offline yet. Right now I am just copying and pasting it into a word document, which doesn't exactly keep all the formatting. I think a spreadsheet would be better as I could track if I have completed my goals or not and how long they are going without being achieved etc. But anyway, the reason I haven't progressed with that idea is there are too many other goals that I am prioritising over it to try and get done, primary my budget spreadsheet. I am not keeping up with inserting a budget function a day.

I broke my language streak! I didn't even realise I had missed this until this morning and I saw the notification still on my phone. There is no excuse for this - I allowed myself to get distracted again by preoccupation. Yesterday I was distracted by looking for raspberry pi parts/accessories. I probably should look into a program of how to control my preoccupation, because for every situation it has worked in my favour, there is a situation like this where I am annoyed because I forgot to do something. Or to look into some memory classes?

Not much else happened yesterday/today. Moving constantly all day so not much time to sit and dwell about games, which again I think is a good thing.

Days:

  • Game Free: 9 (26 Apr)
  • Facebook Free: 1 (25 Apr)
  • Alcohol Free: 1 (25 Apr)
  • Running Training: 1 (26 Apr)
  • Language Training: 0 (26 Apr)

Today I was grateful for:

  • My Dad helping me out last week with some jobs around the house. The two aspects of my house that I am really enjoying at the moment he helped me fix up. Didn't complain or want anything in return, just shared his experience and skills openly. We need more people like this.

Today I learned:

  • Never work with children and animals! Whatever actor said that is a smart man.

Goals completed today:

  • Did not achieve anything I set out to do yesterday morning. This is upsetting.
  • Enrolled in studies for next semester; I am a sucker for punishment.

Goals I didn't complete today:

  • Prioritise my goals. Did have a quick chat with my coach after I gave him the results of an Emotional Intelligence survey I did a few weeks ago, and I promised I would sit down and go through it in detail with my goals on Friday.
  • Have not cleared out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Drink 500ml of water as soon as I wake up.
  • Didn't maintain language streak.
  • Work out how to select a date range and corresponding cells from a spreadsheet.

Goals for tomorrow:

  • Work out how to select a date range and corresponding cells from a spreadsheet.
  • Sort all my electronic peripherals to work out what I need to order for my laptop project.
  • Put all game accessories in the shed.

GTD Tip for tomorrow:

  • Tried out not replying to emails for 24 hours yesterday. Worked fine and my stress was a lot lower! I would like to do this again to work it into a habit.

Goals for this week:

  • Finish Respawn worksheet #2.
  • Finish my fundraising page.
  • Add a budget function every day. Add 10 transactions a day.
  • Keep my spending under $100 for the week.
  • Clear out all game accessories in the shed.
  • Try to talk to my leadership coach. Prioritise my goals.
  • Start my research essay.
  • Start building a timelapse project for the garden.
  • Start to achieve some of these goals so it's not a stale copy and paste!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...