do stuff regularly, try the Pomodoro method

Project Review

Firstly, logging daily activity has proven to help me maintain certain habits. I used it to start a simple exercise routine years ago, and I believe it’s played a significant role in making me read at least one chapter of non-fiction almost every night in the last six weeks. Initially, I was somewhat successful at writing a little bit on daily basis too, instead of one long session shortly before a deadline. I also continued going for walks or jogging despite weather getting colder, sometimes to a fault.

However, that’s the extent of good outcomes. I didn’t code on a schedule. I made hardly any progress on my backlog of (DIY) projects.

Why? I was dealing with seasonal health issues, discomfort and dwindling motivation. That, and I procrastinated a lot, usually sitting in my room listening to audiobooks, not even doing some menial work around the house.

I’ll have to figure something out, maybe even brute-force a fixed schedule and see what sticks.

Week 6 Review

I have still had a weird sleep schedule and often slept excessively. Didn’t get much done.

The Good

• writing: wrote a few small chunks during the week
• reading: continued daily sessions
• walking: continued going for walks almost every day
• misc: relatively little things, such as swapping smartphones, and placing some orders before the holidays

The Bad

• often slept in and caught up with daily tasks late at night
• mostly procrastinated on the few free days, despite feeling fine
• coding: no progress on my main project and only limited work done overall
• walking: usually went outside after dark, because of my offset sleep schedule

Day 42

• writing: a small chunk (about 15 minutes)
• reading: 10 minutes
• misc: online shopping for books (1-2 hours)

Day 41

Feeling better, but missed an opportunity to be productive.

• writing: a small chunk (almost 30 minutes though)
• reading: 20 minutes before bed
• walking: went for a walk (30 minutes)

Day 40

A bad day again. Felt angry, tired and sick.

• writing: no, only the weekly editing session
• reading: two short sessions (20 minutes total)
• walking: went to the post office (30 minutes total)

Day 39

Technically a day off. I slept in and did only little things here and there.

• reading: 30 minutes
• walking: went for a walk (20 minutes)
• misc: had to replace my phone at last

Day 38

Had to attend an event, spent the day afk.

• reading: 20 minutes during commute
• walking: walked across the town (about 70 minutes total)

Day 37

Another day when I felt terrible for the most part.

• writing: a small chunk before bed (10 minutes)
• reading: 15 minutes before bed

Day 36

• coding: no, discovered a bug copy-pasted in many places, but didn’t have the willpower to fix it
• reading: 20 minutes before bed
• walking: a short jog (10 minutes)

Week 5 Review

The Good

• coding: finished dealing with the unexpected request from the previous week in 4 days
• reading: continued daily sessions, more consistently, finished one audiobook
• walking: yes, including longer walks on 3 days
• misc: finally managed to upgrade Android ROM on family smartphones
• misc: finally prepared old boots for repair

The Bad

• felt bad, not ill, but sick of coding, people…
• technical difficulties, spent more than a day figuring out why my main computer was freezing
• coding: no progress on the main project
• writing: almost nothing, left the bulk of writing for another week

Week 6 Plans

• coding is urgent for real
• plan a meditation retreat at last (postponed for more than a year actually)

Day 35

What a strange day, anyway:

• coding: minor editing (15 minutes)
• reading: 30 minutes while traveling, finished listening to the audiobook (100 minutes)
• walking: a long walk in the fields (2 hours)

Day 34

Sleep deprived and traveling.

• reading: found 15 minutes here and there
• walking: about 1 hour with a heavy backpack and then went for a jog late at night (10 minutes)
• misc: finally succeeded at upgrading Android ROM, spent hours trying different combinations of bootloaders, LineageOS builds and Google Apps implementations

Day 33

Did a very poor job at prioritizing, packed for travel at the last minute as usual.

• reading: a little during commute (15 minutes) and then found one book from my backlog as an audiobook (80 minutes)
• walking: went to the post office (25 minutes)
• misc: prepared old boots for repair; another attempt at fixing my computer and upgrading Android ROM

Day 32

• writing: a little chunk (10 minutes) and the usual weekly editing session
• reading: a little during lunch and some more before bed (40 minutes total)
• misc: spent half the day trying to mitigate my computer’s random crashes and freezing

Day 31

• coding: a bugfixing session (about 1 hour total), it made me unusually angry for some reason
• reading: three short sessions during commute and before bed (35 minutes total)
• walking: went to town (about 75 minutes total)

Day 30

• coding: a shorter debugging session (about 30 minutes)
• reading: 20 minutes before lunch
• walking: went to the post office (45 minutes total)

Day 29

• coding: a long session at noon (1-2 hours)
• reading: 15 minutes before bed
• walking: went for a jog (20 minutes)

Week 4 Review

Mostly procrastinated with audiobooks. While not sick, my sleep schedule went off the rails.

The Good

• little things such as starting a new website
• coding: dealt with an unexpected feature request
• writing: got things done in 3 days
• reading: continued daily sessions, although less consistently
• walking: spent time outside and went for a walk basically every other day, due to colder weather

The Bad

• very little consistency
• still failing to code more
• tried to start some housecleaning but didn’t get far

Week 5 Plans

• coding is urgent
• travel on the weekend

Day 28

Slept in again and didn’t do much.

• writing: not really, did some research and editing, but no new writing
• reading: only 10 minutes before bed
• walking: went for a slow walk (75 minutes)

Day 27

Slept in and procrastinated.

• writing: rewrote a bit from the previous day and stuck with it (80 minutes total) despite interruptions caused by freezing computer

Day 26

• writing: one session before bed (25 minutes)
• reading: one session (20 minutes)
• misc: finally tried a new cooker to make dinner

Day 25

• coding: copy-pasted a code snippet for 15 minutes
• writing: no, but I started a new website to publish essays later, and did the weekly bulk of editing
• reading: one session on the go (20 minutes total) and another before bed (10 minutes)
• walking: went to the library (30 minutes total)

Day 24

Procrastinated, my sleep schedule is off too.

• writing: a small chunk (20 minutes)
• reading: a very short session (5 minutes)

Day 23

• coding: a short session (20 minutes, maybe), stopped due to connection issues and it was late
• reading: three short sessions (30 minutes total)
• walking: went to the post office (20 minutes total)

Day 22

Headache, felt like getting sick again.

• coding: no, got stopped by a couple of unexpected bugs early on
• reading: one short session (10 minutes)
• walking: no, felt too cold after working around the house

Week 3 Review

I still didn’t feel well and had to travel on the weekend.

The Good

• writing: didn’t have enough source material, but continued writing in small chunks 4 days
• reading: continued short daily sessions and an extra longer one while away from home
• walking: continued daily walks or jogs, at least very short ones (although I risked getting sick again)

The Bad

• still little to no coding
• even short writing sessions were riddled with distractions
• missed several opportunities to read more
• while still not feeling well, sometimes went for a jog late and dressed inappropriately for the weather

Week 4 Plans

• prioritize coding at last
• hopefully don’t get sick again
• longer reading sessions
• pick up the knowledge base on the weekend

Day 21

Traveling, still mostly afk and then tired.

• reading: skimmed a few technical books, but actually read only 5 minutes before sleep
• walking: a walk (40 minutes) and then had to go from the train station (20 minutes)

Day 20

Traveling, mostly afk.

• reading: three sessions (15 minutes, 1 hour, 20 minutes), finished another short book
• walking: went for a jog (20 minutes)

Day 19

Although not sick anymore, felt unusually depressed and irritable.

• coding: only a brief session debugging an old script
• writing: a small chunk (10 minutes), aside from continued editing work
• reading: here and there on the bus (15 minutes total)
• walking: went shopping (25 minutes total) and then for another walk (20 minutes)
• misc: unsuccessfully tried a few Android ROM upgrades and downgrades

Day 18

• writing: multiple short editing sessions but no writing
• reading: a slow, longer session (30 minutes)
• walking: a walk (25 minutes) late at night

Day 17

• writing: a small chunk (20 minutes stretched over more than 40 minutes)
• walking: a walk (35 minutes) late at night

Day 16

Similar as the previous day.

• coding: no, but casually browsed some documentation
• writing: a little chunk (10 minutes total, with many interruptions)
• reading: one short session (15 minutes), finished a book
• walking: a short jog again (5-10 minutes)

Day 15

Felt better, but procrastinated.

• writing: a little chunk (10 minutes) and cursory research into a possible topic (15 minutes)
• reading: one short session before lunch (10 minutes)
• walking: a short jog (5-10 minutes), probably a stupid idea

Week 2 Review

I didn’t feel well and fell sick.

The Good

• writing: resounding success, daily short sessions followed by longer sessions on days 13-14, and the bulk of text is more than usual; the only downside is that the longer sessions were late in the evening
• reading: continued short daily sessions, added a few more during commute
• walking: continued, one jog when I didn’t feel well, then commute (3×) and when I fell sick, still spent some time outside and went for a short walk once

The Bad

• no coding except on day 8
• while sick, I feel like I wasted an opportunity to meditate and do relatively low-effort tasks, such as reorganize my collection of old hardware and unfinished DIY projects

Week 3 Plans

• prioritize coding
• step up reading (tracked non-fiction books)
• continue going outside
• I’m supposed to be traveling on the weekend again, thus don’t think I’ll get much done then

Day 14

Still sick.

• writing: after many delays wrote about as much as the day before (75 minutes total)
• reading: only 5 minutes before bed

Day 13

Still sick, procrastinated most of the day with a fiction book until late evening.

• writing: one small chunk, then another and got hooked for about an hour (80 minutes total) and quit to go to bed
• reading: one short session (10 minutes)
• walking: dared to go for a short walk (10 minutes)

Day 12

Sick, couldn’t concentrate much.

• writing: another chunk (20 minutes)
• reading: two sessions (20 minutes total)

Day 11

Woke up sick, didn’t really do much throughout the day and abandoned the plan to travel on the weekend.

• writing: aside from some weekly editing, forced myself to write a small chunk (10 minutes) despite feeling increasingly tired
• reading: only 15 minutes before bed
• walking: went to the post office again (30 minutes)

Day 10

Lost control around lunchtime and went to bed late with a fiction book.

• writing: a small chunk (15 minutes) with a lot more unnecessary research
• reading: started another book, two short sessions (30 minutes total)
• walking: a quick jog to the library (5 minutes) and had to climb many flights of stairs

Day 9

• coding: no, started testing an API but got distracted and tried writing instead
• writing: a small chunk again (over 20 minutes with many distractions)
• reading: a few pages on the bus and before sleep (about 15 minutes total)
• walking: went to the post office, ran some of the way (30 minutes total)

Day 8

I thought I would be sick, but turned out okay.

• coding: messed around with some code examples for about 2 hours
• writing: a small chunk again (20 minutes)
• reading: only 10 minutes before bed
• walking: only a quick jog (15 minutes) late at night, because I spent much of the afternoon gardening

Week 1 Review

The Good

• coding: made some limited progress on day 1-2
• writing: finished this week’s newsletter on time, with short sessions on day 3-6 and longer on day 7
• reading: daily, albeit short sessions before bed
• walking: no hiking, but went for a jog (3×) and had a commute (3×)

The Bad

• mostly only short sessions
• no coding and writing on the same day
• nothing else, I wanted to work on my knowledge base one day but didn’t, didn’t make any noteworthy progress on any DIY project either,…

Week 2 Plans

• prioritize coding
• code and write at least the same short chunks on the same days
• continue reading daily
• continue going outside, might travel and go on a hike on the weekend (mutually exclusive with other activities though)

Day 7

Alas, a day similar to yesterday.

• coding: no, I started setting up some tests, but it didn’t work and I gave up
• writing: a longer session at last (70 minutes) with a short break in the middle, wrote as much as in the last 3-4 days combined
• reading: only 10 minutes late at night
• walking: went for a jog (20 minutes)

Day 6

What a weird day. It started out rough, but I had a nice cup of tea, did some work outdoors despite unwelcoming weather… and eventually got stuck with a fiction book, hence didn’t do much of what I had planned.

• writing: another small chunk of the newsletter (20 minutes)
• reading: only 10 minutes before bed
• walking: went for a jog (50 minutes)

Day 5

Very much like last few days.

• writing: wrote only a small chunk of the newsletter (20 minutes)
• reading: only 10 minutes before bed
• walking: went to the post office and back with a very heavy backpack (about 25 minutes total)

Day 4

Got distracted again.

• writing: did a lot of related editing, but only another tiny chunk of writing (20 minutes)
• reading: only 10 minutes before bed again
• walking: rode a bike to an appointment instead (50 minutes)

Day 3

Got distracted early on and didn’t do much at all until evening.

• writing: wrote only a small chunk of the newsletter (20 minutes)
• reading: only 10 minutes before bed
• walking: went for a jog up the hill and back (40 minutes)

Day 2

I got up confused what to do first in the morning, it quickly cleared up though after I figured out a coding problem in the shower. Overall, however, I did less than I would have liked on top of my daily routine.

• coding: two scattered sessions during the day, made some progress, but not as much as I hoped for
• reading: only 5 minutes here and there
• walking: yes, went to the post office (about 25 minutes total)

Day 1

• coding: partly solved a long overdue blocking issue, didn’t track time though
• reading: 20 minutes shortly before sleep

Here’s a list of activities that I want to track:

• coding: I have 2-3 major features to work on and the more time I spend on them, the better; I have faced some big initial obstacles that turned me off the project, thus better try the Pomodoro method to keep me on it. It’s also a new tech stack, and so additional study sessions would be welcome.
• writing: newsletter that’s 500 words per week on average and takes about 2 hours to do.
• reading: I regularly bring a large stack of non-fiction books from the library; my goal is reading 20 minutes on daily basis.
• knowledge management: organize bookmarks and notes for a personal newsletter, wiki,…
• DIY projects and photography: old hardware restoration, documentation, lots of soldering, that sort of thing; I’m hoping for 1-2 sessions a week.
• walking: I managed to go out for 1-2 hours almost every day last month and want to continue to some extent.
• meditation: I practice mindfulness every night before sleep, but want to expand my practice: 20-minute movement exercises at least twice a week for starters, and shorter sessions any time between tasks.
• misc: anything that I have in my backlog.