I'm using the template I used the last time. 9/4/26 - 16/5/26
"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: Read up on finblogs again - WCI and Nick Maggiulli. I've managed about half of "Six Easy Pieces" by Feynman, but I'm going to the library to change it up today. Continuing with various blogs.
T: Started with a book and found out about halfway through it that he was implicated in the Epstein files. Granted its a book about psychology, I no longer consider it valuable. Gonna head to the library again. Continuing with various blogs, mostly on finance.
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: Nothing much here. I still go and visit my family and my grandma roughly twice a month. I still spend some time with my grandma, but less. There's just less to talk about (she often makes things up), so I just help her out with something practical whenever I'm there.
Other that than, my father and I are embroiled in a (legal) battle with the welfare office/insurance company. We gather documents from medical checkups (my mom helps my grandma with that), producing appeals etc. I also offered my mom to go out for lunch every now and then to support her.
On a brighter note, my brother and I had a burger together and then visited the improvisation show. My brother said he liked it, so we might go again :)
T: So my grandma was (finally and thankfully) hospitalized about a month ago. During one of the "routine" emergency ambulance visits, one of the medics noticed that her legs are in really bad condition, mostly due to poor hygiene. No surprise there, because I had called the emergency back in January because of her legs. She had a surgery in the hospital and they pumped antibiotics into her, but it seems that it's just a matter of time when they're gonna have to amputate her leg. She also had undiagnosed/untreated diabetes for a very long time, which doesn't help. She still delusionally insists that she's doing okay and looking forward to being home in her flat again...
I met my brother yesterday for lunch and we had a good talk about his job and other stuff.
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: I had to write a price offer after an interview for a company that is looking to start a few courses. Nothing came out of the price offer, but I'm OK with that - I got three new students who replaced two courses that finished, so I'm doing well overall. I also filed my taxes.
T: In the end, I got contacted by the company I sent the offer to, so something did in fact come out of it. I updated the price offer asked for a really premium rate this time, because I need to travel to get there.
The outlook is good, I have more than enough work at this point. I'll have to make some price increases to reflect that.
I also made a partial analysis of the rate of return on the website. I compared the performance of the last 8 months of the old website and 8 months of the new website. The old website "generated" 5 students and the new one "generated" 5 students as well. I also have three active inquiries now. I guess I was expecting more, but granted I also raised the prices and have enough work as it is, I'm not really bothered by that.
I had a few army activities in April, including a SERE theory course.
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: I managed 10/17 of my 10-13 breaks these past four weeks or so. It doesn't seem like much, but a stomach flu (diarrhea and vomiting) shot me down this week, so I'm taking it easy. I also made up for the rest by spending an active holiday and weekends with my girlfriend, hiking and cycling.
Went to the cardiology, dermatology and dental hygienist for routine checkups and everything is OK.
T: Managed to exercise 13/19 of my 10-13 breaks. The week before the holiday was weak, as we prepared to leave and I had more social events.
Went to a race and got ran 6,2 kilometers in 29:13 minutes - roughly 4:45 min/km.
We were active during our holiday as well, but not in the standard way of running or lifting, but we did a lot of hiking and cycling.
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: Had another FIRE meeting, met my friend a few times, went for hikes with my girlfriend, went to the improvisation show with my brother.
T: Met my friend, played table football and had a nice holiday in Normandy. We visited many bunkers and museum and even cemeteries related to WWII.
Possible direction/goals:
Keep in touch with my friend groups (FIRE, quiz, best friends...).
Relationship with my girlfriend:
L: Spent time together on hikes, cycling and on holiday. I also created an adaptation of a game I and my girlfriend liked.
T: Spent time together on holiday and watched some films together. My girlfriend mentioned she'd like to talk and debate with me more often.
Possible direction/goals:
Make time to talk every day.
Keep on working on strengthening our relationship via common activities.
Others:
L: Besides battling the government welfare bureaus, I'm also now legally battling a company that refused to refund me for tickets for a concert after it was canceled.
We had a boiler change done in our apartment, as the old one leaked. The owner of the flat paid for it, but I think we'll pay for it later in the rent increase :)
I used porn only twice in this last month and about six times in the last two months. Not bad.
T: I felt a bit clueless as we were coming back home from the holiday last week, as if I had no priorities and no goals. This week proved me wrong. I actually felt quite beat-up at the end week, as I plunged from my active holiday of 10 days straight back into work. I have more than enough stuff to do and to work on that are meaningful - it's just that for a day, I felt that nothing was going on.
This year, so far I've managed to sock away about 35% of what I made this year, after taxes. I've debated myself on whether I should take more holidays, but come to the conclusion: What would I take holidays from? There's not much point in doing so if I already do what I want and what I need. I've read something on living an international lifestyle - changing countries every few months to avoid personal taxes, but I guess it's not something that would interest me at the moment.
Last but not least, I'll circle back to porn. It's been kind of back and forth for the last few weeks, but even months and years. I had some limited success of longer streaks of no porn in 2022 for a few months, no porn in 2024 for a month before the CELTA course (it was very insightful, but also very stressful). I obviously don't do it in social settings and sometimes I'm busy enough to not think of it for days or even weeks. It's not even that I watch porn for nudity and some depictions of sex, I think there's something else at play. After about a week of abstinence, I also feel my natural libido coming back. The issue is, I don't know how to help myself with it. I'm planning to do some research again on how to understand myself better soon.
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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.
By
Ikar ·