Life Balance Rework 2.0:

April 20 ~ Day 9

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔❌
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔❌
  2. 3 pm ✔❌
  3. 7 pm ✔❌
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔❌
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔❌

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔❌
• Japanese ✔❌
• Eat Healthy ✔❌
• Art ✔❌

April 19 ~ Day 8

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔
  2. 3 pm ✔
  3. 7 pm ✔
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔
• Japanese ✔
• Eat Healthy ✔
• Art ✔

Notes:
Today was a bit of a mess but I still pulled through. I’m running late though so I’ll update this tomorrow.

April 18 ~ Day 7

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔ (All but one disrupted 1 hour due to emotional disruption)
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
  3. Weekend: Do same structure. Intersperse chores with fun ✔ (was a little heavy on the work this time)
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔
  2. 3 pm ✔
  3. 7 pm ✔
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔ *
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔ *
• Sunday morning weekly breakpoint & Dk30 adjustment:
  1. Take breakpoint separate from planning. ✔
  2. List accomplishments before planning. ✔
  3. Adjust to target main issues only here. ✔

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔
• Japanese ✔
• Eat Healthy ✔
• Art ✔

Notes:
Today was overall going well, got roped into more work than I had intended and weekly evaluation took longer than I had intended, but I managed to get some fun in there. Late in the day however I hit an emotional spikebelt and the * things didn’t exactly go as I had imagined (though I did do them) with my emotional tools. While I did struggle to evaluate them as a green check mark, I actually did remember them eventually and used them once I did. However, there is a lot to be desired in their application this first time. While I did use them, twice for one of them, and I can’t say I failed in that, they didn’t quite go the way I had envisioned originally and took quite a while before I actually applied them. I may need more detailed prepared structure(s), simply more practice (even if through practice runs), or more complete response plans to deal with late recognition and poor execution on some parts.
The one good thing is that since I did apply them and not get stuck there I was able to get back onto my system and hit all my points anyway, though I can’t say I claimed any relaxation since then and really have still been in a persistently negative headspace despite my current efforts to move past it. I’ll need to think on this later to gain any more clarity on it, but at least I maintained staying true to things through it.

April 17 ~ Day 6

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
  3. Weekend: Do same structure. Intersperse chores with fun ✔
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔
  2. 3 pm ✔
  3. 7 pm ✔
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔
• Japanese ✔
• Eat Healthy ✔
• Art ✔

Notes:
Today was fantastic! A much needed rest but also wonderfully productive as well. The balance of the two actually make me enjoy the whole thing more. If anything I was a bit too productive on one or two tasks but that wasn’t a huge deal. Almost forgot exercise because of it but caught up after dinner once I remembered and before the breakpoint too!
I aced another set of the first section of Japanese course so one more and that section is done! I’m feeling really good about that and art is coming along excellently as well. Best of all, I figured out my sleep issue last night. Turns out I was just getting uncomfortably warm but not hot enough to actually sweat so I was just waking up instead. Temperature here jumped 10 degrees in that time so one less blanket and I’m good to go. Which should make everything work better after so many days of disrupted sleep!

April 16 ~ Day 5

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔ (at 1 pm once I could and remembered)
  2. 3 pm ✔
  3. 7 pm ✔
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔
• Japanese ✔
• Eat Healthy ✔
• Art ✔

Notes:
Whew! Today was a bit of a struggle. Noted early that the same sleep issue of waking up a few hours early and not going back to sleep right away happened again for the third day and while I didn’t feel tired directly at first, I noticed quickly that I was having issues focusing. Could also be that the toll of the week was catching up with me.
Regardless, my timings and remembering to set timers was not great today. I’ve noted previously that when people ask for my help I am can struggle to get back efficiently and noted that was especially true today with this exhaustion floating around. I think something as simple as setting a timer or being more deliberate about how long the task should take and making more deliberate clarity for me as to when I will be done and back to work will help a lot. Will need to think more on when I’m well rested though. So far the watch trick worked well once I remembered.
Even that said, I still managed to keep things together and be quite productive. It was a bit of a struggle to stay on targets. The longer the day went on, the more I began to feel it and now I can feel how very ready I am for the weekend. Honestly, I never would have thought I’d last this long after that I’ve done this week. No matter what the efficiency rate was, I stuck to everything without too much struggle overall even as tired as I was and that’s an amazing win for me! Also, physical movement and standing was severely restricted due my old meniscus issue causing quite a bit of discomfort after the sharp increase in physical activity with this new schedule.
The next phase will be equally important however as I typically want to turn into a blob of uselessness on weekends where I’ve pushed hard during the week. While I fully intend to relax fully and thoroughly, I need to be deliberate and pace it properly with chores and tasks I couldn’t get done during the week. Careful balance will be required but the biggest thing is dropping the intensity over the next two days. If I can allow myself to commit to fun entirely and just break with a task here and there, it should enhance both. Low intensity but not inattentive to the invasive squalor goblin.
Currently taking it one day at a time, enjoying the feeling of just doing well while avoiding the sense that it may all come crashing down by counting them anymore. That said, I’m definitely celebrating my first full work week of previously unfathomed success! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

April 15 ~ Day 4

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔
  2. 3 pm ✔
  3. 7 pm ✔
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔
• Japanese ✔
• Eat Healthy ✔
• Art ✔

Notes:
Today was a good day. I’ve finally finished the long standing game dev course project I’ve been blocked on for a long time with the last four days of effort and it’s D.O.N.E. I’m happy with the explorations I’ve made on it and generally how I’ve learned, progressed and said what was good enough for it. That’s been a bear on my back for longer than I’d care to admit knowing that whenever I picked it up I just hit a wall or spun my wheels.
Generally today has been a little chaotic from normal and I did get a little sloppy with my timers/timings but nothing that was really that problematic. I felt good but definitely might be more fatigued mentally than I thought after reflecting on some of my behaviours across the day. Regardless, while something I noted and don’t want to become a habit, I’m quite fine with my more flexible execution today. I stuck to things and always returned back to what I was doing once I realized I forgot a timer or whatnot.

April 14 ~ Day 3

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔
  2. 3 pm ✔
  3. 7 pm ✔
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔
• Japanese ✔
• Eat Healthy ✔
• Art ✔

Notes:
Today started out well but as the day went on I could definitely feel the start of fatigued feels in mind and body. Pretty sure I didn’t sleep the best either. Nonetheless, while I noted some difficulty processing and some minor looseness with times or mental structure in approaching things, I stayed true and actually still performed better than my normal best on good days. This I feel is a test that actually gives me a proper good feeling about the ability of this to actually work long term. While I’m not going to get myself hyped up, I’m feeling a growing deep satisfaction while I just enjoy each day that this is working.
Minor learnings noted on breakpoints for improvement may be to set limits on concept challenges which have me exploring to figure out new solutions with tools I’ve never used as they tend to take me further astray than I think may be beneficial when I’m experiencing a tired mind. The adjustment would be to write down my ideas after time limit expires (and then come back to it later with a fresh mind) and instead resume the coursework with my tired mind. That’s more an optimization though. There isn’t much I can think of that is actually problematic in a way that I need to solve. Just learning how to work with fatigue in this system has already gone really well.
Oh I suppose that is one point, my timer game gets weak when I’m tired and so I’ll have to be more attentive to staying on point and dropping stuff where I am when they go off. Generally I learned and adapted that well though so I’m quite happy that the mindset of the system is already allowing me to self correct without much trouble.
Ah! And I forgot the one “failure” of today was my morning had some time that wasn’t used as I assigned but I can hardly be unhappy about it. I was on one of my 5 minute breaks and I smashed my toe so hard I cracked the nail. In icing it and distracting myself I did wander off from being productive but no only did my first breakpoint do exactly what I wanted it to do, I had the self awareness to catch myself 10 minutes before the breakpoint occurred! (though I did wait for the breakpoint anyway) That makes me so happy that those do what I wanted them to!
Now time to enjoy the rest of the evening! Yahoo!

April 13 ~ Day 2

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔ (Once I could at 12:20)
  2. 3 pm ✔
  3. 7 pm ✔
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔
• Japanese ✔
• Eat Healthy ✔
• Art ✔

Notes:
Oh my goodness, I’m feeling so unbelievably happy with how this is working! No matter if I fluctuate later, this is back to back really great feelings and RESULTS! Like, I’m am trying to keep a tempered excitement but honestly am also just enjoying things feeling great and working. The solutions so far are feeling and working better than I would have expected and seem to address the issues in a way that effectively does more work than I had intended.
I was wonderfully productive in Unity but even beyond the act of working on it, I’m finding it so much easier to resolve problems such as going too far on a detail that doesn’t matter and being more deliberate about how I solve issues. I would not be surprised at all if things get much harder or more issues arise from this approach but after 2 days like this, I know there is enough good stuff in these adjustments from last time that it doesn’t really matter what happens after this. I know I found some good stuff and that makes me really happy.

April 12 ~ Day 1

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔
     • 10 min exercise ✔
     • Plan sketch ✔
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔ (not yet formed but took break)
  2. 3 pm ✔
  3. 7 pm ✔
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔
• Japanese ✔
• Eat Healthy ✔
• Art ✔

Notes:
I have been just on top of things with this new shift in approach and fresh new start. The pomodoro thing really is working out great, though I think the physical activity and using the standing desk portion of things (after getting mouse replace for that part) were doing a lot of heavy lifting also. Expected more resistance from myself on the changes but I think I was also really excited to get back to things after a break in structure left me craving more. Though I will not be surprised if I’m mentally drained from such a start, this time I’m going to account for it, adapt to it and see how much I do before needing to work around it. It’s difficult to know when I shouldn’t push harder but hopefully the breakpoints will serve me well for figuring that out. Very happy with the start and getting all the plan and details worked out to this point. I feel very happy and confident in this moving forward.

(Format of daily posts for future postings)

Weekday:

April ~ Day

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔❌
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔❌
     • 10 min exercise ✔❌
     • Plan sketch ✔❌
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔❌
  2. 3 pm ✔❌
  3. 7 pm ✔❌
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔❌
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔❌

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔❌
• Japanese ✔❌
• Eat Healthy ✔❌
• Art ✔❌

Notes:

Full:

April ~ Day

Completion

New/Main Focuses:

• Keep to work time structures:
  1. Pomodoro during work hours ✔❌
  2. Morning restructure
     • 8 am start ✔❌
     • 10 min exercise ✔❌
     • Plan sketch ✔❌
  3. Weekend: Do same structure. Intersperse chores with fun ✔❌
• Use three daily breakpoint to reset flow:
  1. 10 am ✔❌
  2. 3 pm ✔❌
  3. 7 pm ✔❌
• (behavioral) Tackle problems more directly:
  1. Write issues down. Address at breakpoints. Limit to 15 minutes. ✔❌
  2. Sit with emotions for 5 minutes without judgement. ✔❌
• Sunday morning weekly breakpoint & Dk30 adjustment:
  1. Take breakpoint separate from planning. ✔❌
  2. List accomplishments before planning. ✔❌
  3. Adjust to target main issues only here. ✔❌

Maintain:

• Exercise ✔❌
• Japanese ✔❌
• Eat Healthy ✔❌
• Art ✔❌

Notes:

Initial Planning Complete:

It seems I’m going for a more structure heavy approach this time. Beyond solving some of the core issues with the last DK30, it should help me target issues more specifically when they occur. The idea here however is not to be a rigid structure necessarily but one which I can default to. On some points I’m going to be more strict, such as breakpoints, but they are also experiments that are going to need adjusting. Rather than trying for a general set plan, I’m going with a more specific but iterative approach to this 30 days.

As such, my plan this time is to weekly adjust the mechanisms as required but to give it one week each time (baring huge issues) to ensure I can properly evaluate the issues each week. Generally, my focus is going to be heavily on my work hours of 8-12 and 1-5 as that was the biggest problem last time. Additionally, issues with failure cascading across my day/week, taking forever to deal with things that are bothering me, and weekend structure issues are my core new focus. That said, while I’m more comfortable with exercise, learning Japanese, art skill improvement, and eating healthy, I want to keep tracking those and ensure I keep those habits.

The main risk of this that I see is that I might default into being too rigid about things and end up resenting the structure over time. Additionally, if something isn’t working I don’t want to feel committed to it but also don’t want to have the freedom to change it simply because it doesn’t feel good to begin with. Taking what I learned from last time I will be using breakpoints in my days and weeks to prevent things from overflowing. They are a short break to simply check in on myself and be deliberate about what I do next. Adapting an idea from Day9, I’m going to view this Dk30 strictly as a 4 week push and then take a week off before resuming another structure. Now that concept scared me at first but thinking it over I’ve realized it doesn’t need to mean I have to stop any of it but rather I’m not going to be committed to this forever. It may be that after a week of reflection and relaxing on “being on point” I may create an entirely different structure or perhaps just settle in to a more sustainable pattern. We shall see.