Thu 10.17 (30-day Proactivity test - day 1) No compulsive social media use - 15 days No compulsive research - 15 days No passive screen time during work, before bed, nor first thing in mornings - 19 days Late entry for today, but it's because my wife and I were talking with a friend who has been going through a really tough time. He got divorced earlier this year, one of his cats passed away just last month, and now he is prepping to move to a new place with his two other cats. So yeah... that's why I'm posting so late. We were up late until a bit after 11pm, talking and supporting him. This was not planned, but that is ok. He is a close friend who has been there for us, both to just chill and also to support us through our own struggles with fertility and losing pets. We wanted to do that for him too. For work; my 1-1 with my manager got moved to earlier in the day, because she wanted to meet shortly after the meeting about the project I was working on. Overall I felt really good about that meeting; I was focused right from the morning, the fact that all my diagraming was done prior (yesterday) really put me in a good spot to get a decision document sorted out. And the meeting went well, given that my manager said "I don't think we'll need a part 2 meeting" after we finished it up; so that tells me I delivered my knowledge and plan clearly. 🙂 Pretty happy about that result. Because it moved up, I attended another ITAA meeting later in the day; it was the beginner meeting focused on step-work, we read some literature about AA history; specifically, it was about spiritual connection with a higher power to reach sobriety. After the reading, 3 members who have been sober for 30 days spoke about their experience. The one which stuck out to me the most was from one of them who talked about their experience with Alcohol addiction; he said something along the lines of "even if an internet addiction doesn't literally kill you like alcohol eventually does, you are essentially declaring yourself dead from the world by missing out in your life." Really powerful message there, it stuck out to me. Oh and I also did some volunteering for the online civic tech club. I introduced to them the concept of creating Issues to track things we want to work on, as they can be assigned to us. That way it brings more organization, as we are growing (we are up to 5 devs now, it was only 2 of us before!).  Things I must do each day to stay healthy Sleep around 8h - yes, I went to bed again shortly after 10pm, although I woke up at 5:55am due to the baby being hungry. Still that is close enough to 8h. Stretch - yes, this morning and before my workout. Active stretches again. Go for walks / Exercise - yep, my wife and I did some chest (flys and press), dips, and planks to end. Drink Water - yes, I refilled it throughout the day. Lots of water today. Wash face + body - yes, after morning workout. Nutrition: breakfast - yes, yogurt again, had 2 cups with cashew though to make it more substantial lunch - mac & cheese  dinner - chicken and rice, my wife spicing them. I helped by rinsing the rice and stirring it, before it went in the rice cooker. We made a good combo with the rice imo, I am pretty good at getting the exact right measurement for how much water to put in, while my wife is very good with adding flavor. Talk to my partner - Yes while working out. Speaking of, since I'm off tomorrow, my partner and I were wondering on some longer workout ideas for tomorrow. Anyone have any suggestions for weight work? Looking for suggestions that are not cardio as we will be walking my in-laws dogs and ours over long distances at around noon (which will be our cardio) Talk with my kids + play with them - yep, we all went to run an errand, pick up more winter clothes and other items. Read a book - since I woke up early, this morning I read Ernest Hemmingway's short story "The Capital of the World", a story about a young man in Madrid, Spain. He yearns to be a matador, and so he practices with another matador who once got injured by a bulls horn and lost his courage to continue with his career. So this matador practices with him, and he ties knives to the end of a chair (to simulate the bull horns)... naturally that goes about as well as you'd expect. Yeah, the protagonist dies. Meditate + deep breaths - yes, during my breaks throughout the day. Practice French - I did some in the evening after having had dinner and putting all kids to bed. Journal (gratitude and reflection) - my entry is here🙂 --- 7 Habits Workbook - 30 Day Proactivity Test (Day 1) My commitment to myself today was to finish that decision document. And I did it. I was not just determined and disciplined to work on it, but I was also respectful of my breaks today. And that is the main thing I've learned today; to respect my breaks. I stuck to my Pomodoros working time and break time very strictly, and I am very much noticing that I feel a lot more energized and less burned out. Make it a point to really listen to your language during the next week. Is your language more proactive or reactive? (Day 4) Today in that meeting I typed "here are things that must get done" but caught myself, and instead changed it to things that we should get done. That shows my preference, and the change in language also made me think to write the reasoning behind why it should be done. So that is why it is important to use proactive language 😄 Like a lightbulb going off MASTER (day 2) Baby was crawling a lot today, including close to my desk and pulling on cables. After the first time he did that, I used the Master checklist to be more proactive rather than having to pick him up right away; which is a good decision, dgmw, but by proactive I mean being able to plan ahead for this  Measure = 5 - I mean obviously my baby matters a lot, he's a cutie-pie Assess = reactive response is to pick up baby right away, backpack him with the carrier; he is usually ok with it, but I've noticed he is starting to dislike the carrier, now that he can move more See stimulus/response model in your mind = baby too close to my work equipment, pick him up and wear him Think of a proactive response = I laid out some toys away from my desk and away from the ground; that way he didn't have to be picked up and fuss, and he could still explore safely away from the cables Engage or exit = engage. I could've called for help too, which could've been an "exit," but I wanted to give my wife more time to herself Review = this actually worked pretty well, at least for one whole 25min Pomodoro it did. Enough time to complete the presentation, then right after baby got bored of the toys and crawled back to try the cables again haha. But by then I took a break and got him away from them, focused on something else. Kids keep you busy, that's for sure. --- I know I said I'd do more on my Circle of Influence, but I thought I'd be more available to do that before we started talking with our friend. Obviously plans changed. So here's the deal I will make with myself; tomorrows proactive commitment for me will be that I will need to get farther with these exercises: Heading to bed now, slightly before midnight. The good thing here is that I'm off from work tomorrow, so no need to wake up 6:30am early, and I can nap midday if need be. Also means tomorrow I have more of a chance to work at these exercises. --- Hey Mohammad; yes, it is Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". I've been making it a point to practice it daily. There's a companion workbook by the same name, just says "Personal Workbook" on the cover in addition to the title. It has a lot more exercises that go with each chapter.You don't have to do what I'm doing necessarily, but I have been enjoying working through all exercises first before moving on to the next chapter. That's why I'm not yet reading Habit 2. Also, another reason I'm doing this is because, in the self assessment that the workbook includes, I scored lowest in Habit 1: Be Proactive, and my next lower scores are in Habit 2 and 3. I will get to the next chapter soon though, I'm not necessarily going to wait until the 30day Proactivity test is done, but I did want to complete the remaining exercises first.

18th of October - Clear Day 7 (Progress) I typed something to 'put down' what I would describe as the regular gaming experience on my problem-RPG, but thought better of it. Similar things probably have their place in many people's routines still. Over the last 2 weeks, either side of a day of relapse, I've been asking more what I actually believe is contributing to my growth (in the immediate and broader community) that I can do instead of playing at my computer.  I went for 10 minutes of solitaire on my phone with music one evening this week, and I actually felt pressure on myself to 'perform' (play quickly) because I knew the songs were ramping up or coming to an end (luckily, most deals were 2 minutes to complete, lying back in bed). What I do in as much silence as I have control over seems more worth measuring. I've reasoned with myself until I actually agree out loud for a fair amount of time. Hopefully, this will progress. Otherwise, maybe it's my condition, but I've also noticed several 'out of sync' moments with others. This could just be for a lack of planning, instead thinking as I go - which is really a preference as I've planned a lot solo. It wouldn't worry me, but I perceived this morning in the grocery store that, given the choice, many of us shoppers may have preferred a completely empty store to pick up and pay for our items in. That is fairly unrealistic, and could be quite inaccurate, but it begged for a solution in my mind. IMO, the store could have culled/delayed the music playing, just as gyms could be more strategic with it as well. Happy Friday! - due to 2 group meets, I've started to look forward to them. See you later. Matt

Day 21 with no gaming.  I arrived home and spent one hour with my son. After he went to bed, I started watching Netflix. I intentionally avoided studying/reading as I always do before bedtime. It turned out very well. I watched for two hours and went to bed in time and I am not feeling burnout today.     

Entry 17.10  Day 748: No Useless Videos Day 745: Sticking to Food schedule Day 348: Eating Only between 06:30 and 19:00 (Last bite before 19:00) Day 53: Being in bed before 23:15 3 Things I did well no matter how small -16 pomodoros -1hr 40 min run -Moving one plastic container's qinoa into jar from peanut butter. quite creative, thus freeing up one box (I have many of them full because a 5kg quinoa came with holes fro it's delivery, so i moved all of the quinoa to those boxes and now I have a lack) 1 thing I could do  better -stick to the 3-5, 15-30 pomodoro windows

Day 8-9: Time I woke up: 9:30am Time I went to sleep yesterday:  12am Physical task: None Getting more money task: Created a CV generator to get better responses while applying to jobs  French task: None Music task: Practices singing and meet up with band Miscellaneous accomplishments: ~ Launched by first start up product, took me 2 full days of coding. Learning a lot of things in the mean time (Next.js,) ~ Got 4 songs ok and ready to be presented with the group Summary of Day #: I've been coding for 2 days almost non stop. I created my product that generates CV based on job descriptions with the idea of increasing my response rates from recruiters (usually pretty low), so lets see how it goes. (try it if you want, is free on this URL cv-improve.vercel.app ) What I am grateful for today: ~ Launching my company ~ Fixing my sleep seems to be fixing my mod problems. I feel less anxious and just more productive. Awesome!