So, the Spring break is over (I am on a train riding back as I am writing this), I feel zero rested, and there’s no break in sight now. (sigh) But we managed to move apartments all right, and my partner is effectively recovering after his surgery. The problem is that for the past few weeks I only supported myself with the idea that I would have this break in April, and now there’s nothing to support myself emotionally. The teaching load will decrease soon (I had two intensive classes) but I also have two conferences in May that I need to prepare for from scratch. And one more obligation that was due before that break but I asked for an extension but didn’t fully finish over the break.
Derailments
- just one this week: work_research_2bp - I was supposed to be working on that obligation but didn’t do enough
Changes to existing goals
- some of the goals were on pause for the first half of the semester - now these flat spots are ending and I am adding more to some of these goals, as I am becoming aware of the illusion that I will have time for everything now
New goals
- steps_if5k - for the monthly challenge; to enforce actually walking the average required number of steps (required by another goal) most of the days
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This was a very unproductive week, as the exhaustion of the past period doesn’t let me get back into the routine.
Derailments
-
again on work_research_2bp — didn’t do enough for what I am expecting myself on the outside-of-teaching aspect of my work
-
tbr_total — an acquaintance bought some books for herself but let me borrow them, as she doesn’t have the time to read them now… (as if I do…) but who am I to refuse books that I have been ogling myself, one of them something I deliberately asked her to borrow when she’s done.
Changes to existing goals
- added more breaks to some of the goals that were on pause since the beginning of the semester; it’s just not the time to bring those back into circulation yet
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I am very much in the mood for a spring cleaning of goals today (including some from the monthly challenge, which were fun to try out but were never intended to stay indefinitely).
- tbr_started_whittle - will end after acrasia horizon. It was a good way to whittle down the started portions of books originally, but lately the cutoff of 5 full books felt a bit artificial. I have enough constraints on my reading already. Might reuse in the whittling-down mode later.
- tbr_arcs_overwhelm - thought to end this as well, as it also turned into a scarecrow of a line not to cross, but decided to give it another try if I actually use it for whittling down things.
- photos-related goals have been on pause for a while; it’s not a priority now, but I am keeping them in the gallery to return to.
- french_hours that has been sitting in my gallery without new datapoints since 2020 goes to the archive.
- lipbalm_b4_sleep - ending this to potentially revive the next cold season; it’s been helpful for the wintertime/early springtime self-care, but for now, the burden of remembering to do this exactly before going to sleep (i.e. after I have posted the data point and closed the computer for the day) is higher than the usefulness.
- steps_if5k - was fun to try out for a month; did I actually walk extra steps thanks to this goal? - I totally did, walking around my apartment or the long corridor in the apartment building that connects all the staircases/entrances.
New goals:
- 2026may_drafts - a word count (URLMinder)–based goal to make sure I am producing the words on
paper screen that I am expected to have produced for some events soon.
UPD: also added breaks for the conference trip in slightly over a week.
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It’s been a good week: I’m still behind on some of my commitments (real-life, I mean), but I am finally making some decent progress. Breaks that I created last week for the few days around my conference trip are a very welcome respite.
Derailed on my blog post goal a couple of days ago.
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Went to Paris for an academic event for two days; derailed on lit_anki_rotestock on the night of the outbound flight - arrived to the hotel too late to synch Anki in time to satisfy this goal.
Still so much behind on many real-life commitments.
Adding breaks now for another conference trip in 1.5 weeks.
Not much happening beeminder-wise this past week. Leaving for another conference in a couple of days, so breaks for most of the time-consuming goals for this time span.
Was away for a conference most of the week, for which period many of the goals are related to regular routines at home have been paused. Now that what I had to prepare for the conference is out of the way, as well as a major admin thing that I was occupied with before the trip, I only have one huge outstanding thing left that I am awfully late with. Hope to get that out of the way this week as well. Also planned a small trip (non-academic for a change, visiting friends) for later this week, for which days I have also added breaks for goals incompatible with the travelling mode.
Something uncanny just happened: it’s time to add breaks for another planned trip, as at next week’s review it will be too late. But then I discover that at least for some of the goals that I was planning to add them, I have them already added. With no memory whatsoever of doing this. One can gauge how tired I am after the semester, which is almost, almost over, but not quite yet.
Last week Ukrainian publishers had a ton of promotions, so I bought a ton of books. I have been dancing around the red line with tbr_pur_pages_stale for a while, reading up some of the older entries (that weigh up to x4 now, so giving way to 4 pages in newly bought books by each read page). But then I visited a friend who lent me quite a few titles from her home library that might work with my reading challenge (reading from countries from which I haven’t read anything recent), as well as some other things I was interested in. So I ended up derailing on both total pages and total books after I catalogued all the borrowed items. I am also increasing the rate on tbr_pur_pages_stale to encourage some more progress, or to discourage undoing the progress by acquiring more new books. A new goal (June’s entry for monthly challenge) tbr_10oldest_pages is also supposed to encourage me to make progress on those oldest in the list. Actively engaging with a book and deciding to DNF is also a valid option, it’s not like I am obliged to read everything I ever thought I might — but this should be an active decision rather than never getting to look at it.
Also derailed on going to sleep earlier this past week.
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It is slipping my mind what happened when 
I thought I have two derailments to report from the previous week, but it appears that one of them was earlier and was already reported. So only one for teeth_hours from the last week.
Now that the semester is in it limbo phase, some of the goals I previously paused for the length of my busyness with teaching are starting again. But I still have a ton of grading to finish, for which I created a short-term goal 2026jun_papers_check.
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The short-term goal I announced last week was fairly effective to deal with the majority of grading in time. (Some late-comers are still arriving, I am dealing with them separately.)
This week, I am combining my work with a nice balcony view (workation?), so some of the goals are on a break for this little while.
No derailments to report as far as I remember.
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