Well, happy new year and welcome 2025! Time for my first check-in of the year, and thus time to make my sixth Beeminder journal thread.
What’s this?
Each week, I post a summary/reflection on my beeminding from the previous week. I usually post on Friday, though sometimes I’ll post a couple of days earlier or later.
Previous threads:
[Pre-2021] | [2021] | [2022] | [2023] | [2024]
Ground Rules:
Feel free to join in and ask questions, poke me and give me accountability, chip in with your experiences. I’m game. If something’s out of bounds (e.g. because it’s too personal), I won’t be offended, I’ll just say so.
I’m usually very frank about my physical and mental health, particularly the latter. That means I’m usually happy to answer questions that others might consider impertinent or TMI… but I’ll let you know if it crosses the boundary and I don’t want to answer.
Useful things to know:
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Opening thoughts:
Oof, here we are in 2025! I’ve been getting my yearly goals started, kicking up the pace of studying, and all sorts. I’m really looking forward to the weekend.
It was also a near-thing that I didn’t derail on my TBR goal from the books my wife bought me for Christmas. Lisa went nuts on it! But I had successfully planned ahead and the crisis was averted.
Derailments:
- /tody - I’ve fallen pretty behind on this one over the Christmas period. I have a plan (see new goals) for getting back on track somewhat – and I’m not sure whether I want to keep this goal in its current form. I guess we’ll see how it goes! For now it has some buffer.
New goals:
- /onechore - This is my first New Month’s Resolution goal for 2025, and is hopefully gonna help me get somewhat back on track with chores. It’s a simple one: do one chore, every day, no matter how busy. That means on a busy day I can pick a small chore, but still, something will get done.
- /2025backlog - This is a reading goal, but one I haven’t tried in this format before. It’s also my choice for the No Excuses Mode NYR challenge (see the first post for a link to that). I’m not quite sure what the rate should be yet, but I’ve started out with the hope of at least a quarter of the books I read this year (so roughly 100, since I usually read 400 books in a year) being books I already owned before 2025 began. The fine print notes the last unread book bought before the threshold (currently volume 3 of the light novel The Apothecary Diaries, I think), and will be changed if I start that book. That way I have a sort of “bookmark” in my (large) StoryGraph TBR, which displays books added in order. Ideally I’d like to up the rate so it’s more like 200 books, but I’m not sure what’s feasible with my whim-based reading habits, so for a while I’ll just gather data.
- /2025pages - This is my reading goal for 2025 based on total number of pages read, which is 90,000 pages. That means I’m aiming to average 225 pages per book I read, nudging me in the direction (I hope) of reading some of my longer books, while not precluding reading manga, comics and novellas. I find myself somewhat avoiding books that it feels will take me “a long time” to read, because of my other reading goals nudging me to just finish more books, so basically this goal is part of my checks and balances on prioritising the wrong things.
- /2025reading - And finally, this is the goal based on the cumulative total number of books I read. This year I’m not making multiple goals at different levels, but just going for the “Savage” goal initially (400 books) and being prepared to drop it back to “Extreme” (365) or normal (300). I read 400 books in 2023 and 2024, so the “Savage” level feels doable now, and having a single goal avoids some of the double-jeopardy situations I was in which weren’t helping.
Changes to existing goals:
- /2024reading, /2024reading_ex, /2024reading_sav, 2024reading_sprint and /2024reading_pages - All these goals finished on 31st December, and were ultimately successful.
- /lshtm_wash - I’ve completed a first pass of study on this course, so this goal is now quietly dormant.
- /lshtm_immunology - I need to get through the whole of this by the end of January, so I decided on a different format for this one. Normally I make my study goals “steppy”, but this one is more standard, set to go at whatever rate gets me to the end by the end of the month. I started with some buffer, though, to give me a bit of wiggle-room as I go.
Closing thoughts:
In some ways I’m feeling like there’s too much going on, in some ways I’m managing more than I was before. As ever, swings and roundabouts I suppose. The only thing for me to keep in mind is that I need to have a think which goals I can definitely keep up while I’m away later in the month, which ones I can’t but have enough buffer already, which ones I can if I plan ahead, and which just need a break. I’m not away until the 22nd, but it’d be nice to be prepared!
I also want to go back to my TBR goal and add #derail tags back to certain datapoints, so I can tell when a peak in the number of books owned was planned in advance or due to a derailment.
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I am also a Tody user and have debated Beeminding it. However:
- I am hesitant to have another manual data entry goal.
- I still really don’t have it set up well. I have the frequency too high or low on certain chores.
- I’m not really sure what to Beemind. How gar Dusty is ahead? Just how many points I got? Do I count what the kids and husband did as well, or just me? (Although my kids are still at a stage where them doing chores still requires some effort from me, even if it’s just reminders.)
I’m curious the particulars of your Tody goal. Right now chore consistency is kind of a mess for me and the kids, and I have a feeling that a well done Beeminder goal could help.
For me, my Tody goal has always just been “clear the decks on Tody = +1”. So I can’t check it off if there are any chores left to do at the end of the day.
Latterly this has been modified to “all today’s chores done, plus two chores from the backlog” if I’ve got behind, to try and keep it reasonable (it’s amazing how quickly the backlog builds up).
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Boy is that the truth. I often feel like I just want to mark everything in there done one day and start over. I’m now tempted to do this on the 31st and maybe make Tody my resolution for February.
I need to do a big reset of my tasks too, or maybe just delete everything and start over. Maybe I should join you in February! I know I’m going to be away in the second to last week of January, so it doesn’t really make sense to do it now…
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Opening thoughts:
It’s been an OK week, though I’m not reading as much as I’d like, so I’m losing ground on my books and pages goals for 2025. Not my backlog goal, though! I’m ahead on that. That’s mostly because I don’t have any books bought since the cutoff, yet, so almost anything I choose (except for library books) counts for this goal. Still, it’s good to make progress.
Changes to existing goals:
- /toberead - As I planned last week, I’ve added in hashtags to distinguish when a peak on this graph was a derail and when it was planned in advance (otherwise, the two situations look the same if there’s a jump up).
- For my time away from home, I’ve only put breaks in a couple of goals:
- /weighingin & /dailyweight - Because I’m not toting my smart scale with me.
- /gotwheels - Ditto my bike.
- /tody - It’ll be on a break. However, I’m not pausing /onechore, since keeping my living/working space tidy and helping with stuff at my parents’ house should still be possible.
- /gotwheels - Also getting a break for right now because it isn’t remotely safe to ride. The roads are coated in a thick layer of ice. A thaw should hopefully be coming soon, and I want to test out riding with my new heated cycling gloves (they’re a little big for me), but I can’t say when exactly the road will be safe again – particularly not the cycle paths, which are more isolated.
- /lshtm_immunology - I ended up removing the buffer on this one, but enabling weekends-off. This way, my rate shouldn’t go over 1/day, but I can take weekends off without worrying.
Closing thoughts:
I think that’s actually it for the week! Nothing else momentous to report. The snow and ice here have been upending a number of plans (like trying to get back to cycling!) but that’s just how it is, gotta roll with it.
For next week, I want to sit down and write up how my studying goal is going for me in the current format, because I didn’t think I’d like it, but it’s certainly getting me through my course content at an acceptable speed!
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Opening thoughts:
The snow (and resulting ice) are gone, but of course this week I’ve been preparing to be away for a week. I’m not going far, only to stay with my parents while Lisa visits their family, but since I don’t have much day-to-day stuff at my parents’ house anymore, it’s still a bit of a production. (I have a great new toiletries bag, though! And packing cubes!)
Changes to existing goals:
- /micronutrients - I realised that this goal needs buffer while I’m at my parents’ house as well, unless I want to be carrying my entire clicky-clacky pharmacy-worth of bottles around with me. I don’t, particularly, so I’m leaving them behind.
Reflection:
I promised this week to reflect a bit on how I’m doing my immunology goal (other than “in a blind panic”). I ended up just figuring out the date I need to complete the course by and how many sections there were, and I’ve been trucking along with that goal with surprising success. As opposed to my usual deliberately-planned steppy-style goals for this, it actually encourages me to build up buffer when I get to a short section or have some extra time, and that allows me to take a break on days when I’m not feeling it.
There are benefits to the steppy-style too, but I think I’ll try to do the goal for my TB class like this as well, because right now I need Beeminder to be hard on my tail throughout the week, rather than risk getting to Friday and having to cram it all at once in one afternoon. This happens a bit because I explicitly have a half-day from work on Fridays to study, but I don’t want it to be so pronounced that I have to study on Friday even if I’m sick or have an appointment or whatever.
Closing thoughts:
Things really aren’t going too badly right now, despite the intensive studying. The new raid tier in Final Fantasy XIV isn’t far away (mid-March, I think?), so a whole extra level of commitment is coming for me… but that’s not yet and there’s time for me to square other things away to make that go smoothly.
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Opening thoughts:
It’s been a quiet week on the Beeminder front, with the breaks put in my goals ready for travel, so this should be a quick one!
Derailments:
- /ironandoj - I forgot until too late in the day, alas.
New goals:
- /fates - There’s a certain kind of overworld fight in FFXIV called a FATE (full active time event). There are achievements for doing a certain number, right up to 10,000 in total, and also various areas allow you to complete a certain number of FATEs for rewards. I decided to pick this as my achievement to steadily work toward, but with a very low rate of 3/day so it’ll always be doable… with an autoratchet, so I can’t get complacent. I won’t hit the final achievement for years at this rate, but that’s OK at this time.
Closing thoughts:
And that’s it for the week! Nothing else on my mind for now; being away from home, it’s not really a good moment for changing routines, etc.
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Opening thoughts:
Back home, and flinging myself into February tasks with a will – I actually got my study goal for February set up well in time, and have already begun to make progress with it!
Derailments:
- /serialreader - This one got accidentally neglected on the day I was heading home from staying with my parents’, due to a bunch of factors (like there being no internet at home, which really threw me off!).
New goals:
- /readingsessions - I’d been thinking about some kind of reading goal for February to help me get ahead on my reading goal. It doesn’t seem like the right time to mandate anything intensive, though, since my study schedule is gonna be pretty gruelling. However, I came up with an idea: the tendency I have during stressed out times is to drop my habit of finding small amounts of time to read around everything else. This goal requires a minimum of 3 reading sessions a day (I can check how many reading sessions I’ve had via the app I use, Bookly), and should hopefully keep nudging me to read when I get up, over lunch, and right before sleep. I can make up for it at other times when I have to skip for some reason, and I have placed no requirement on how long the reading session should be.
- /lshtm_tuberculosis - I finished up my immunology studies a few days early, so made a start on my TB studies before the start of February! I’d even have the foresight to make the goal for it a few days in advance just in case, so once I got started, I trimmed my initial safety buffer, and we’re away! Like the immunology goal, it’s set to get me to a total of [the total number of sessions in this course] by the end of the month, with weekends off. It’s gonna be a tough ride, but I love learning about tuberculosis.
Changes to existing goals:
- /lshtm_immunology - Finished and archiving as of tonight, I believe!
- /onechore - This goal finished (a day earlier than expected; caught out by the off-by-one intermittent issue with the date picker again, alas) and was restarted, because it’s been of great use.
Closing thoughts:
I think that’s it for this week! My plan for the coming week is to consider whether I want a goal for reading my darn library books, since I have a number of holds coming in, and a lot of books already out and not… even… partially read. Maybe I don’t want a goal, but I keep thinking I might, so it’s worth me trying to work out how that might look.
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Opening thoughts:
I’m still thinking about the library books goal I mentioned last week, and the possibility of returning to having a goal for each book I’m reading to encourage at least some progress each day*… but for now I turned to a different problem, and have a new goal for that, instead.
It’s been a busy week, but I’m doing well at keeping up with my studies, so stress is faaairly low. Except, you know, when our washing machine stopped working, threw an error, and tried to flood the kitchen.
New goals
- /2025books - As per my musing in another thread, I figured that since I’ve got a goal basically focused on isolating my TBR backlog and making progress on that this year, it’d probably be good to have something for this year that incentivises reading the books I get this year.
Tada: a custom goal, non-cumulative, with a threshold at 20 books unread. I might up the threshold temporarily for stuff like my birthday, depending on how well I’m doing at reading what I’ve bought/received.
I’ve even reconstructed more or less the timeline of books bought/received and read so far from 2025. I just got a couple of ARCs, and now I am duly incentivised to read them in a timely fashion – I hope.
Closing thoughts:
Stiiiill gonna think about that library books goal idea. The most bananapants idea I came up with so far (which @dreev didn’t think sounded too bad, actually, but maybe he didn’t quite grok quite how often I go to the library, and how many books I tend to get out each time) was a while ago, when I thought… maybe I’ll just create a separate whittle down goal after each library visit that involves me picking up new books.
It’d be a lot of goals, but theoretically they’d get closed off pretty quickly if I gave them teeth to try to enforce reading the books I get out.
Still thinking…
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Opening thoughts:
This week has seen a few new goals, a couple of derailments, and some goal adjustments, all of which I hope are good things… so let’s dig into that.
Derailments:
- /lunch - I hadn’t actually realised this one had derailed, but apparently so. I probably needed the kick in the butt, I’ve been bad about it.
- /writethosereviews - I’ve been reading a lot, but feeling lazy about writing reviews, and it caught up to me. I could maybe have pushed myself to write three reviews last night, but I decided on getting the buffer from the derailment.
- /yoghurts - I’ve been really neglecting this one, and have to get back to it. I stopped letting myself put breaks in it, which resulted in me just not doing it and watching the derailment come closer and closer. If the next one doesn’t motivate me, I’ll probably up the pledge.
New goals:
- /bicolorgemstones - I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a new goal for doing overworld fights in FFXIV called FATEs. Completion of FATEs can give you a currency called “bicolor gemstones”, and those can be traded for vouchers, which can ultimately be traded for a mount. I figured since I was doing FATEs anyway, I’d double-dip and have an extra goal for getting bicolor gemstone vouchers, to help push me toward the 10,000 FATE completions for the other goal. I’ve set the rate for two vouchers a day, with 500 needed to get one mount. At that rate, I should get my first of the two mounts in October. It’s a cutie, too!
- /libraryfeb12 - I went to the library this week, so I decided to pilot the “make a goal to read the books from each library trip” scheme. The rate is 1/week, and I got six books out. Let’s see how it goes!
- /roads-to-rome - I also decided to create a goal for making some progress on a book I’m a little stuck with, Catherine Fletcher’s The Roads to Rome: A History. I was contemplating DNFing it originally (DNF = did not finish), but I want to give it at least a shot.
- /fatebook - I was intrigued by the new integration with fatebook.io, based on the blog post, so I figured I’d make a goal to encourage me to give it a try.
Changes to existing goals:
- /gotwheels - Bowing to the reality of how much free time I have at the moment, I’ve lowered the rate on my cycling goal to 1/week… and managed to actually get out for a ride earlier this week, too. Hopefully this should prove a balance between the time lost for studying/work, and the fact that it is actually good for me to get out on my bike!
- /fates - At the moment, my average rate is just over 10/day… so since they seems sustainable, I’ve just upped the rate to that (from 3/day).
Closing thoughts:
Whew, that’s it! I think. I’m going to leave my goals alone now for the week (at least!) and see how things go, before I decide on adding more reading goals, etc.
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Opening thoughts:
Well, oof. It’s been quite a week around here. Unfortunately on Sunday my wife broke an ankle, and is not allowed to bear any weight on that ankle for… at least a few weeks, and is not very good on the crutches (even if there wasn’t a hole in the floor of our hallway, rendering everything more awkward than is ideal). There’s also been some drama with getting someone somewhere to accept responsibility for providing ongoing care for that (we’re still working on that, since the fracture clinic currently don’t want to see us until mid-March!), and also with a sick pet.
I’ve made a bunch of changes and derailed a few times this week, including by just pressing the uncle button, so… let’s see what I can remember.
Derailments:
- /lunch - In the turmoil, I let lunch slip again. The derailment was a valuable reminder. And again just now, since writing this post reminded me that I should eat (and grab something for Lisa as well).
- /lshtm_tuberculosis - This was not sustainable on the day when a pet was sick, doctors needed to be chased, etc, etc. It was a very bad day. The previous night I’d studied most of the evening to keep up with the goal, but it didn’t seem sensible to do so again. I pressed the uncle button.
- /readingsessions - I couldn’t really settle down to read for a few days, I didn’t have the time or inclination. So I was relieved to derail and get a bit of respite.
- /serialreader - I’d been keeping up with this one despite everything as long as I had a serial I was currently reading, but then I finished it and I didn’t have the time to look through the catalogue for something new. Nor the inclination, really. I ended up calling non-legit on this, because it’s not something I willing chose to let go of, I just ran out of… everything.
New goals:
- /amslergrid - I am now officially nearing the age at which I might develop non-age-related macular degeneration, based on my mother’s age of onset (read: very young for it), and my optometrist has declared it time for me to move from checking my eyes with an Amsler grid every so often to doing it weekly, so we can catch my first drusen or bleed swiftly, should I be unlucky. I assured my optometrist that I know exactly how to ensure I will never miss a week.
I now need a yearly eye test and OCT scan, but Specsavers will send me lots of reminders about that themselves, so I didn’t make a goal for that. My optometrist also wants me to do exercise and go outside a lot, and I feel this is also covered by my other goals. (If you know a little about it you know I should also be wearing sunglasses to reduce UV exposure, and this is in fact covered by the fact that I always get photochromic lenses in my glasses, to ensure I don’t get exposure by just forgetting.)
Changes to existing goals:
- /lshtm_tuberculosis - I pushed out the end date of this a bit to accommodate the necessary changes to my routine.
- /2025reading - The support team prevented this one from derailing and gave me some days of buffer, for the same reason as the derailment on the Serial Reader goal was non-legit. I’m feeling my way back into reading now some of the most immediate issues are dealt with, so let’s hope I’m back on track now.
- /inactive - I’m on my feet a fair amount at the moment and thus gaining a lot of buffer, so I knocked down the daily allowance a bit. Actually, not sure why it was so high in the first place, because I haven’t needed so much buffer in a bit.
- ??? - Pretty sure I edited something else, for the same general reason: life’s a lot right now, in a totally unanticipated way!
Closing thoughts:
Entirely possible I’ve forgotten something in my summary here. Like I’ve mentioned, heck of a week! And as a result, no particular plans for the week ahead.
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Opening thoughts:
It’s still been quite the week, though it feels like it’s been way longer than that by now. I’m not sure what-all’s been happening – let’s take a look at the story my goals tell.
Derailments:
- /yoghurts - I can’t actually remember what happened here… it might actually have been because we had no spoons clean, but they were all already in the dishwasher so I couldn’t just grab one and clean it. I could probably have thought of something, but… meh. But we did just buy a twelve-pack of the right size of spoons, so that shouldn’t be a problem again.
- /gotwheels - I could probably have dragged myself out on my bike, but I was so tired and discouraged and ready to take the penalty in order to have a break. I’ve made sure the respite is generous, to give me more time to adjust.
- /roads-to-rome - I didn’t make the time to read this, and chose to read something else instead. Still, the goal is steadily getting me through the book!
New goals:
- /recycling - This is a month’s trial of a goal for taking out recycling every other day. At the moment it’s my task anyway, and I want the reminder, so here we go. This goal is my New Month’s Resolution this month, too!
- /dishwasher - It’s so much easier to keep the kitchen tidy if stuff gets put in the dishwasher right away. This is trying to make me do that, both now while it’s my sole responsibility and when my wife’s back on their feet properly.
Changes to existing goals:
- /libraryfeb12 - This goal was set up right before everything went off, and it was way too optimistic about what I could do while running a household and acting as a carer. Support in the shape of Oliver kindly adjusted the goal to be more realistic.
- /lshtm_tuberculosis - My study schedule had to change again, and the support team again had to help me tweak it.
- /olddishwasher - I was going to restart this goal, but I didn’t like the old setup (with some 0.5 entries for some reason I can’t remember), and it was just for emptying the dishwasher. So I renamed it to free up the name.
Closing thoughts:
I think that’s everything! It’s likely there’s a fair bit of upheaval awaiting me in the months to come, but I hope to keep chugging along all the same. I can do this!
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Opening thoughts:
This week I made a very urgent trip to Wales to be with my grandmother when she died. I was very close to her, having lived with her from when I was 21 to when I was 26. So… my heart isn’t in it with a lot of my goals, let’s just say.
Please be aware that I do discuss the situation below. I’m trying not to get too heavy here, because it isn’t the place, but there’s no way to talk about myself and my goals at all right now without reference to it.
Derailments:
- /roadstorome - When we hit the road to drive down to Wales to see my grandmother, we did it in a hurry and I didn’t take the physical copy of this book that I’m reading. I had downloaded it to my ereader, though, so I could technically have met the goal if I could’ve figured out what page I was on, and I could in theory have read in the car, since I wasn’t the driver. It just wasn’t any kind of priority that night, and it shouldn’t have been. I’m fine with a $5 charge in that situation to not think about my Beeminder goals at all.
- /yoghurts - I should perhaps have called non-legit on this one, because I didn’t expect to end up unable to eat a yoghurt, I didn’t plan to, and from when I was told we needed to hit the road and drive without stops in order to arrive in time, there was absolutely no opportunity to acquire a yoghurt. I didn’t though, and I kinda consider that it’s too late now to call non-legit. Plus, I could’ve built up some buffer beforehand to avoid being in that last-minute situation.
- /teeth - This would’ve required me to brush my teeth on Tuesday morning. I was a little busy, and hadn’t slept in 28 hours by that point. By the time I could have brushed my teeth, I was so sleep-deprived I literally fell asleep standing up, so no surprise that I didn’t remember. Again, perhaps I should’ve called non-legit on this, but in this case I do very much feel that it was also my own fault for not building up some buffer.
- /recycling - I couldn’t take the recycling out in Yorkshire, because I was in Wales. I let this one stand because it was still in the first week, so I had a $0 pledge.
Changes to existing goals:
- I added breaks on a bunch of goals. I don’t remember what.
- /grandma - My goal for writing to my grandmother was archived, for obvious reasons. I wrote 127 postcards or letters to her over the space of the goal; my final letter arrived the day after her death. I was told that even as her dementia accelerated, she knew who sent her the postcards for a long time, which was a gift – and even when she could no longer read them, they were read to her. My mother is gathering them all up and keeping them for me until I can decide what to do with them.
The last thing Grandma ever asked of me, the penultimate time I was able to see her, was for me to keep on writing. Thanks to Beeminder, I kept my promise, derailing on this goal only once.
Closing thoughts:
I expect the next days and weeks will be hard. Once we know the funeral date, I’m going to give myself some solid time off on the majority of my goals, but we don’t know it yet, so I can’t.
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Opening thoughts:
As expected, it’s not been a great week, but there have been some good developments (a compassionate extension granted for my assignments) and some progress on my part (finished studying the course material).
And, alas, some derailments…
Derailments:
- /2025reading - As so often with me, my ability to sit and finish a book took a hit because I was sad. No surprises about this derailment.
- /lunch - We keep forgetting to buy anything for me to have for lunch, so I let it derail and be legit to remind me…
- /yoghurts - I need to get back to this one somehow. Bigger pledge, maybe?
Changes to existing goals:
- Some breaks added to give me time on goals which aren’t possible while Lisa’s ankle’s broken, or aren’t priorities while grieving, etc.
- /lshtm_tuberculosis - Goal completed and archived!
- /roads-to-rome - And this one’s completed and archived too. Finally! Not a book I ultimately enjoyed.
Closing thoughts:
Still going to just take it gently for a bit now, until after my grandmother’s funeral. That probably means a moratorium on bright new goal ideas, too, unless they have to do with completing my assignments on time!
4 Likes
Opening thoughts:
Trucking along here more or less as usual, currently with my wife doing most of the data entry and management of my Beeminder goals, so I don’t have to look at the great big list of them and freak out.
Derailments:
- /2025pages - Since the book-count version of this goal failed last week, not too surprising that this one followed.
- /libraryfeb12 - Same reasons here, pretty much: I’m not being very focused about reading right now.
- /lunch - Sigh. Feeding myself is hard. (And I don’t make it easy for anyone else to, either; the only person who has success is Dad, because he doesn’t take “no” for an answer.)
Closing thoughts:
Not much movement this week, as anticipated. And that’s fine for now.
I do need some more library book goals to keep testing the idea, but… not yet.
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Opening thoughts:
This week has felt a bit less hectic, and a bit more like “normal”. Still, this time next week I’ll be packing to travel again, with my grandmother’s funeral on 7th April – so this isn’t the time to rock the boat.
Derailments:
- /inhaler - Something about my routine isn’t fitting in taking my inhaler, and I can’t put a finger on what’s changed yet. A solid nudge to get that figured out, I guess!
- /yoghurts - I guess I still don’t care about this one enough now that it’s not part of a challenge. To give me more of a nudge, I’ve increased the pledge to $10, and changed the cap to $30, to start with.
- /2025pages - Reading still isn’t entirely working for me, unfortunately – especially now that the new tier of Savage in FFXIV is looming.
Changes to existing goals:
- Now was a good time to put in breaks for the aforementioned travel, so that’s done on a broad swathe of goals!
Closing thoughts:
Just keeping going for now!
2 Likes
Opening thoughts:
What was it I said about things feeling less hectic…? Well, as predicted, this week’s been a bit more “on the go”. I think I had a few derailments, just to emphasise the point.
Derailments:
- /lunch - I am terrible at eating meals. We knew this.
- /2025pages - Some difficulty with reading at volume at the moment, unfortunately.
- /2025reading - Same.
New goals:
- /morningreading - To help with my mental health a bit, this month’s new goal for New Month’s Resolutions is to read at least five pages of something first thing in the morning, rather than starting my day looking at email or playing an addictive, microtransaction-stuffed game. It’s got an autoratchet that allows me to accumulate one day of extra buffer, but no more than that (though given the circumstances it’s one of the goals I try to keep 7 days of buffer on in total).
Closing thoughts:
One step at a time, we keep going.
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Opening thoughts:
Well. Now me and Lisa are moving house, for various reasons. The chaos never ends around here!
Derailments:
- /stopbyseven - I’ve been utterly failing to manage my time. Sigh.
- /lunch - Just hit the uncle button. My appetite is the first thing to go during upheaval; right now “lunch” consists of whatever anyone can tempt me to eat, which may not be much.
New goals:
- /graduatepls - I have assignments to do. Carving out the time to sit down and do them is proving difficult. This is an extra push. The rate is only 1 hour a day, which is not enough to finish, but it will autoratchet if I have more than a day of buffer. Mostly I’m hoping this will help push it to the top of my to-dos, so I can find space for it no matter what. Sometimes I think psychologically for me, if it’s not a Beeminder goal, it’s not real. So now it’s real!
Changes to existing goals:
- Some breaks added as extras due to general life upheaval, both around my grandmother’s funeral and associated travel, and now the whole new problem we have.
Closing thoughts:
Yeah… everything’s a lot. Wish me luck!
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