I'm using the template I used the last time. 16/8/26 - 11/9/26

"L" will stand for the (last) plan/notes for this term. "T" will stand for done this term.

I added "Future goals/direction" to better reflect on the things I am trying to do and to add specificity. I will copy it and stick it somewhere where I can see it to remind myself whenever I feel aimless. I will also use different colors: blue for newly added goals/habits, green for completed/successful, orange for ongoing/some progress and red for ones I haven't worked on in that period.

 

Books/Reading articles/Learning:

L: I've read very little the last month or two.

T: I got used to reading various blogs on Substack, but I'm having some technical issues with subscriptions. Read a really interesting thesis on organizations and people in them: The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to "The Office".

Possible direction/goals/habits:

(Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report.

Read daily (a few times a week). Reading (and crosswords) are a good way for me to relax.

Drop a book whenever I don't look forward to reading it. CHECK HERE EVERY MONTH.

(While this is technically just a hobby, I like to keep it separate, because it's a big one.)

 

Family:

L: I managed to meet all of my family members this period, which surprises me as I didn't have that much time to do so. Had a burger with my brother, a whole family meeting, lunch with my mom and lunch with my father. As I was away for the most of the last three weeks, I don't know what the situation is with my grandma. I just know she finally agreed to go to an assisted living facility. I'm meeting my parents later today, so maybe I'll know more.

T: Met my father for his birthday and went to an improv show with my brother. Meeting my family tomorrow as well.

NOT: I don't want to get alienated from my family.

Possible direction/goals:

Work on getting the new kitchen for my grandma.

Continue work on maintaining the relationships with my family. Keep in contact at least once a month.

 

Business/English/Army:

L: No significant news this period, just a new student or two, probably replacing the ones ending. I wasn't here much.

As for the army, I have a training in about a month, which I will probably attend.

T: No holidays this period. I went to a local lecturer meeting, which was quite nice. I'm gonna be quite busy next week and then I'm gonna have my army training.

NOT: I don't want to have a job that I don't enjoy. I don't want to have a job that is not well paid.

Past projects: Copied to a Google Doc to keep this less cluttered.

Current projects I'm working on:

Website improvement project - since August 2024 - finished August 2025 with some small upgrades in autumn 2025

lecturer trainings - ENG business February-May 2025 

55 minutes F2F lessons (+ online reminder too); pricing updates

I and one of my FIRE friends organized a teacher/lecturer meeting.

Find more teachers/colleagues to share workload with (with or without commission).

Areas to work on continually:

English table update - check every now and then for improvements.

Keep classes at around 15-20 hours a week.

Keep asking for reviews or recommendations from students.

CELTA colleagues calls.

Go through "lecturer academy" + CELTA materials + lecturer course.

 

Exercise/Movement/Health + 10-13 break:

L: Spent two weeks out of the last four out mostly walking, hiking and cycling on holidays with my girlfriend. If I count these out (and Tuesdays), I managed 9/9 days. It's possible to work out gym-style inside with the A/C on even during the worst of the current heatwaves.

I managed to overwork my tendons in my knee on the bike on the second holiday. It comes up only specifically when I pedal and it's also the same leg that I turn inwards when I walk. Might be connected, so one more reason to start doing the balance and spine exercises to fix my feet.

T: Counting out Tuesdays (even though I once managed to exercise even on Tuesday), I managed 14/16 exercise breaks this period.

I also did the spine and feet exercise a few times, though I am not really consistent with it. I mostly just do strength training during the week nowadays and some hiking/cycling at the weekend.

NOT: I don't want to become fat.

Possible direction/goals: 

Keep in shape by exercising at least twice a week for 30-60 minutes.

Have a session every weekday from January.

Start flossing regularly.

Incorporate balance and spine exercises.

Keep on using the Oura ring to track vitals.

Keep having the 1000-1300 break.

 

Social + Personal Hobbies + Free Time (cool things I've done):

L: This period quiz, one meeting with friends and a FIRE meeting. Watched films when my girlfriend was away.

T: I have a new phone. Went to an improv show with my brother and met my colleagues at the lecturer meeting. Had a FIRE meeting, high school reunion and a board games night. Also met my girlfriend's friends from the office.

I also had my second ever VR session with some of my friends. I however experienced a "VR hangover" that lasted for about three days. I felt quite lightheaded, so I'm not gonna go again, because it's quite a weird feeling.

I'm also thankful for the help of my girlfriend's father who helped me out with my malfunctioning car.

Possible direction/goals: 

Keep in touch with my friend groups (FIRE, quiz, best friends...).

Relationship with my girlfriend:

L: Since I've been off porn for a month, I have to say that we have better sex. I overall think the relationship is in a better place too. We also went to a funny talk show. Spent time together, went for a trip to a different city too. Visited her family. I even thought of how and when to get married.

Spent time on holidays together, all OK, no porn for three months. Went to a sushi restaurant for my birthday.

T: Went for some trips with my girlfriend again.

Possible direction/goals: 

Make time to talk every day.

Keep on working on strengthening our relationship via common activities.

Others:

L: Three months without porn. I still get some sort of excitement nostalgia. I am still learning to disentangle the different feelings and actions. Do I want sex? Am I horny? Or do I want to masturbate just because I want to cope with disappointment? Those are the questions that sometimes roam in my head and they don't always have a conclusive answer to them. It's about repetitions - not only about how many days you are without X, but how many times you resist, distract myself from dwelling in my head and take the harder road.

I spent some evenings of a holiday with some of my girlfriend's family members. One of her cousins has two small kids. Spending time and raising a kid is really hard work. I'd argue it's hard work even if it's done badly. Having more kids is a lot of work and today's society is not really conductive to it, as families have atomized and a lot of the previously free communal services (by cousins, aunts, distant relatives) are professionalized and monetized. One of my friends/acquaintances is gonna have a baby in a few months, so we'll see how that changes him.

Came back from our holidays on Saturday afternoon. I was happy to have some time for myself! I read about volatility drag in finance and air drag while driving yesterday. I tried to pick my bike lock today. I miss doing these kinds of things when I am not at home. I like to spend time on my own. Though the summers in our flat are getting terrible, so maybe it's a good idea to get out somewhere for most of the summer. But to be fair, I had 4 days without my girlfriend too, when she traveled with her sister - I watched films and had some meetings with friends. I just feel it's hard to really manage routines when I am out more often.

I know a lot of people don't have nearly the degree of freedom I have - even if they make far more money, they just live paycheck to paycheck without ever entertaining the idea that maybe they don't need to work until the official state-sponsored retirement.

T: No porn for almost four months. It does still however find its way to my mind sometimes.

Anyhow, I'm seriously considering to keep Fridays off permanently.

---

For thought:

Maybe I should just learn to plan better, though just the thought of having some hours of my day scheduled makes me cringe. Oddly enough, I don't get this feeling while planning lessons of my students, normally in bigger blocks. Maybe I should rethink that belief to make me happier. This might change with the late morning exercise lessons.  10-13 change works well.

I've had this recurring thought every now and then that I am often somehow prevented from what I want to do in my free time; basically whenever I am not with students or sleeping.

No, I just need to stop reading and learning all the time and start doing things. Imperfect action yields results. Information alone is useless.

I like these reports, because they take me back in the calendar and let me see if there's something I've missed or something I need to check on again.

On 7/16/2026 at 3:55 PM, Ikar said:

As for the breaks, by getting the new client, I effectively made it impossible to have a break on Tuesdays. I was thinking of going there on bike, but it's a bit too far for me (around 60 kilometers total). I allocate two hours to (paid) travel there and back even in the car. I'll count these days out for the future.

I feel like this excuse I made specifically for this situation is invalid now. The point of the break is not to have a specific period "off" during the day. The point of the break is to do the activities I made the break for.

On 8/17/2026 at 5:52 PM, Ikar said:

Still thinking about new quality-of-life improvements, related to work, money and time. The 10-13 break every day is good. What's next? No work after X p.m.? Hard limits on the number of lessons? No work with "bad" clients? I don't know really. It's actually quite difficult to responsibly manage more than 25 hours per week due to the nature of my work. Even then, I feel like I have much to do besides work anyway, which I (still) don't do for example, using the inter-dental toothbrush, do balance exercise to fix my posture etc. How do I limit my workload with some intent and thought and maximizing the purpose I get from my work? It's a good problem to have, but I still want to solve it in a way that makes sense.

I'll direct some more thought towards this. I don't really know if there's any other choice but to auction my time. I fall behind on household chores and I hate being unfair towards my girlfriend by letting her pull most of them. It's not only household chores, but other stuff too. I want to feel not being rushed - and its my fault if I don't carve time out for myself.

I'm using the template I used the last time. 11/9/26 - 10/10/26

"L" will stand for the (last) plan/notes for this term. "T" will stand for done this term.

I added "Future goals/direction" to better reflect on the things I am trying to do and to add specificity. I will copy it and stick it somewhere where I can see it to remind myself whenever I feel aimless. I will also use different colors: blue for newly added goals/habits, green for completed/successful, orange for ongoing/some progress and red for ones I haven't worked on in that period.

 

Books/Reading articles/Learning:

L: I got used to reading various blogs on Substack, but I'm having some technical issues with subscriptions. Read a really interesting thesis on organizations and people in them: The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to "The Office".

T: I had some time to read at the army training, so I read "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying" by Bronnie Ware. I haven't finished yet, but it definitely offers an interesting perspective, plus it hits differently since I have a dying grandma myself.

Possible direction/goals/habits:

(Borrow) and read one book until the next monthly report.

Read daily (a few times a week). Reading (and crosswords) are a good way for me to relax.

Drop a book whenever I don't look forward to reading it. CHECK HERE EVERY MONTH.

(While this is technically just a hobby, I like to keep it separate, because it's a big one.)

 

Family:

L: Met my father for his birthday and went to an improv show with my brother. Meeting my family tomorrow as well.

T: I was fully booked for my weekends, so the visit I wrote about above was the last one since, but today I'm going again. I'm also going to visit my grandma in the assisted living facility. Nothing special otherwise.

NOT: I don't want to get alienated from my family.

Possible direction/goals:

Work on getting the new kitchen for my grandma.

Continue work on maintaining the relationships with my family. Keep in contact at least once a month.

 

Business/English/Army:

L: No holidays this period. I went to a local lecturer meeting, which was quite nice. I'm gonna be quite busy next week and then I'm gonna have my army training.

T: The army training went as expected, as it wasn't my first one. My business is also pretty much the same.

NOT: I don't want to have a job that I don't enjoy. I don't want to have a job that is not well paid.

Past projects: Copied to a Google Doc to keep this less cluttered.

Current projects I'm working on:

Website improvement project - since August 2024 - finished August 2025 with some small upgrades in autumn 2025

lecturer trainings - ENG business February-May 2025 

55 minutes F2F lessons (+ online reminder too); pricing updates

I and one of my FIRE friends organized a teacher/lecturer meeting.

Find more teachers/colleagues to share workload with (with or without commission).

Areas to work on continually:

English table update - check every now and then for improvements.

Keep classes at around 15-20 hours a week.

Keep asking for reviews or recommendations from students.

CELTA colleagues calls.

Go through "lecturer academy" + CELTA materials + lecturer course.

 

Exercise/Movement/Health + 10-13 break:

L: Counting out Tuesdays (even though I once managed to exercise even on Tuesday), I managed 14/16 exercise breaks this period.

I also did the spine and feet exercise a few times, though I am not really consistent with it. I mostly just do strength training during the week nowadays and some hiking/cycling at the weekend.

T: Based on the post above, I'll be more strict. I don't want to neglect my health. I'll just count all the workdays, including Tuesdays, excluding only holidays and army trainings.

This period then, I managed to exercise 7/14 workdays I reasonably could. I unfortunately used a lot of the breaks this period to catch up on "more important" stuff I couldn't cram elsewhere, so that's why it's only at 50%.

I got a reminder to do more balance exercises last weekend on a bike trip. The pain in my right knee came up again after a few hours on the bike. I need to make time for this exercise too, even if it's not really something automatic for me.

NOT: I don't want to become fat.

Possible direction/goals: 

Keep in shape by exercising at least twice a week for 30-60 minutes.

Have a session every weekday from January.

Start flossing regularly.

Incorporate balance and spine exercises.

Keep on using the Oura ring to track vitals.

Keep having the 1000-1300 break.

 

Social + Personal Hobbies + Free Time (cool things I've done):

L: I have a new phone. Went to an improv show with my brother and met my colleagues at the lecturer meeting. Had a FIRE meeting, high school reunion and a board games night. Also met my girlfriend's friends from the office.

I also had my second ever VR session with some of my friends. I however experienced a "VR hangover" that lasted for about three days. I felt quite lightheaded, so I'm not gonna go again, because it's quite a weird feeling.

I'm also thankful for the help of my girlfriend's father who helped me out with my malfunctioning car.

T: I had just one meeting with a friend. I was catching up on a lot of stuff before and after the army training, had obviously no opportunity to meet my friend during it, so I couldn't manage to do more.

Possible direction/goals: 

Keep in touch with my friend groups (FIRE, quiz, best friends...).

Relationship with my girlfriend:

L: Since I've been off porn for a month, I have to say that we have better sex. I overall think the relationship is in a better place too. We also went to a funny talk show. Spent time together, went for a trip to a different city too. Visited her family. I even thought of how and when to get married.

Spent time on holidays together, all OK, no porn for three months. Went to a sushi restaurant for my birthday.

T: Went for some weekend trips with my girlfriend again. Had a good time. Still porn-free, for five months now.

Went to a relatively boring presentation together. During it, I was thinking, I could've been doing something more useful. I don't regret it, it's just that I'll be more picky the next time :D

Gonna go bowling today together.

Possible direction/goals: 

Make time to talk every day.

Keep on working on strengthening our relationship via common activities.

Others:

L: Three months without porn. I still get some sort of excitement nostalgia. I am still learning to disentangle the different feelings and actions. Do I want sex? Am I horny? Or do I want to masturbate just because I want to cope with disappointment? Those are the questions that sometimes roam in my head and they don't always have a conclusive answer to them. It's about repetitions - not only about how many days you are without X, but how many times you resist, distract myself from dwelling in my head and take the harder road.

I spent some evenings of a holiday with some of my girlfriend's family members. One of her cousins has two small kids. Spending time and raising a kid is really hard work. I'd argue it's hard work even if it's done badly. Having more kids is a lot of work and today's society is not really conductive to it, as families have atomized and a lot of the previously free communal services (by cousins, aunts, distant relatives) are professionalized and monetized. One of my friends/acquaintances is gonna have a baby in a few months, so we'll see how that changes him.

Came back from our holidays on Saturday afternoon. I was happy to have some time for myself! I read about volatility drag in finance and air drag while driving yesterday. I tried to pick my bike lock today. I miss doing these kinds of things when I am not at home. I like to spend time on my own. Though the summers in our flat are getting terrible, so maybe it's a good idea to get out somewhere for most of the summer. But to be fair, I had 4 days without my girlfriend too, when she traveled with her sister - I watched films and had some meetings with friends. I just feel it's hard to really manage routines when I am out more often.

I know a lot of people don't have nearly the degree of freedom I have - even if they make far more money, they just live paycheck to paycheck without ever entertaining the idea that maybe they don't need to work until the official state-sponsored retirement.

No porn for almost four months. It does still however find its way to my mind sometimes. I'm seriously considering to keep Fridays off permanently.

T: I'm feeling better since I wrote the post above this one. I just needed some time to settle in, which is more difficult if I don't have a day or two completely for myself.

---

For thought:

Maybe I should just learn to plan better, though just the thought of having some hours of my day scheduled makes me cringe. Oddly enough, I don't get this feeling while planning lessons of my students, normally in bigger blocks. Maybe I should rethink that belief to make me happier. This might change with the late morning exercise lessons.  10-13 change works well.

I've had this recurring thought every now and then that I am often somehow prevented from what I want to do in my free time; basically whenever I am not with students or sleeping.

No, I just need to stop reading and learning all the time and start doing things. Imperfect action yields results. Information alone is useless.

I like these reports, because they take me back in the calendar and let me see if there's something I've missed or something I need to check on again.