Opening thoughts:
It’s been a really busy week, and I’ve felt really overwhelmed, so… this is a busy, busy post! Lots of changes to add small breaks to help me catch up (and account for me taking Monday and Tuesday off), and a good fistful of derailments too.
I did manage to set up a new goal for my New Month’s Resolutions challenge, and did a big update in that thread.
New goals:
- /readscience - This has a rate of 2/week, meaning I need to fully read and comprehend two scientific papers a week that relate to one of the courses I’m studying right now (parasitology, nutrition and infection, bacteriology). More on that in the thread linked above, since this is my March goal for that challenge!
- /feb_backlog - Got an email backlog built up, which I hate, so I shoved it all into a side-label and created this goal to fix the problem.
Changes to existing goals:
- /morningpages - This was my New Month’s Resolution for February, and I will be continuing it. However, I set it up at a rate of 3/day (because it’s 3 pages required), and I want to make the rate a bit slacker. That’s easiest if it’s just +1 for completion, so I’ve scaled the graph by 1/3. I’ve also adjusted the rate to be 6/7 per day, and changed the end date to the end of March, to give it another month’s trial as a habit. I found it a useful/interesting habit so far, which helped me produce some essay plans out of tangled thoughts, get some anxieties out of my head, sometimes create order out of my plans for the day, and do a little creative writing. It’s also made for a good morning routine that avoids me sitting down to work straight after waking up (and reminds me to brush my teeth and take my inhaler!).
- /stopbyseven - Added a quick break to this goal for two days where I can’t stop working on Beeminder goals by 7pm because I’m covering for someone else in the inbox later. Actually, I didn’t set this break in time and this will derail tonight, but that’s my own fault. Bah, humbug.
- Adding breaks to the following goals to give me some breathing space: /plank (I think this one needs two recovery days in a week, not just one, so I also changed the rate), /physio, /ynab, /dailyfocusfinder, /postcrossingtasks, /bsupport
Derailments:
- /fastfood - I really wanted a couple of books that required Lisa to do a bit of driving to go pick them up, which was fine with them that Lisa didn’t want to cook after getting back. We compromised! I was prepared to take the books and an extra hit from this goal, and also, I’ll admit, I kinda did want that stupid spicy chicken burger.
- /2024reading_sprint - As mentioned above, I had a overwhelming week. I did good work, but I didn’t have much energy or inclination to read. In the end, I let this derail rather than keep reading quick, low quality stuff in order to keep it rolling.
- /2024reading_sav - Ditto!
- /writethosereviews - I’m not even sure I’d fully comprehended this one was due, but when I got close to the deadline I realised, checked whether I had any reviews to write, and decided to let it go and win myself some breathing space.
Closing thoughts:
This week, I’m not really setting myself a Beeminder related task other than to catch up with stuff, set more breaks if need be, and find a way to keep my cool.