Opening thoughts:
This week’s excitement is that I’ve given in to a long-term impulse and bought myself a pedelec bike, a Raleigh which I’ve named after a sort-of character in one of the book series I’m loving at the moment. (This is how I usually name my gadgets.) Ruoye the Raleigh is getting out and about!
(Yes, I know the seat is in entirely the wrong position there. It seemed solid and well positioned when I left home, but tipped back by the time I reached my destination. And of course I forgot the allen keys to adjust it. They’ve been added to the bag now, and the seat has been fixed, promise.)
New goals:
- /gotwheels - On the principle of beeminding expensive purchases, here we go with a goal to do some kind of significant ride at least twice a week. I haven’t really defined “significant”, but I’m thinking that “riding to the postbox because I’m too lazy to walk” isn’t enough, but riding to the park or riding locally for the sole purpose of exploration is enough.
Closing thoughts:
I still don’t have my asthma action plan, if you’d believe it, but my latest issued prescription says no change in my inhaler dosage, so I guess I’ll continue as I am for now.
Next week, I’d like to get back to studying. It’s a shame I really haven’t felt mentally ready to get back to it for so long, because it’s really important to me, but I really mustn’t burn out at the start of my final year! So we’ll see how it goes, and if I manage to get going with it, I’ll get a step-up planned into my study goal.
4 Likes
Opening thoughts:
This week’s been a kind of quiet one, of the sort where I felt overwhelmed and just let things derail in order to get a bit of a break. I’ll have to see over the week ahead whether things feel any better, but it might be a good moment to put some breaks in my goals and re-assess whether I can keep all of these up during term-time. Sigh!
Derailments:
- /check-in-amy - Technically, this was non-legit in that I did, actually, complete the goal. But I’d already called non-legit the day before for messing up data entry, and I felt bad about it – really I should have done the goal much earlier anyway. So I paid up.
- /2024reading_ex - This is due to the tiredness/burnout feeling I had – I wasn’t even interested in reading, so I decided to give myself some chill time. I should be able to catch back up for this one without a trouble, since it’s aiming at 365 books in the year.
- /2024reading_sprint and /2024reading_sav - These [heading for 400 books read in 2024] are essentially the same goal, just graphed in different ways, so one of them has a $0 pledge so I’m not in double jeopardy. I’m getting less and less sure I can catch these up; StoryGraph says I’m 43 books behind on my reading goal.
I guess I have some decisions to make around that.
- /snackattack - This time, I’ll be honest, I just really really wanted a snack, so instead of a tradeoff between this and the yoghurt goal, this was my first real derailment of “nope, I just wanted to snack instead” (though I let the tradeoff derailments be legit too!).
Closing thoughts:
As you see, I have some choices to make about my reading goals. I’m probably too stubborn to give up yet, but maybe I can think of a way to quickly catch up, like a manga/graphic novel marathon. Maybe I’ll even make another Beeminder goal for that. (My wife’s despairing right now…)
2 Likes
Opening thoughts:
Yeaaaah hoo boy I need some breaks in my goals, I think. I’ve not been reading very much, and everything feels like a bit too much.
I also need to think about what to do when weather happens and my bike goal is due, since the UK’s heading into the colder/rainier seasons. At the moment I don’t let it dip below 7 days of buffer, so if it’s raining too much to cycle on a day it’s due, I could just put in a three day break to punt it down the road. Maybe that makes most sense?
Derailments:
- /2024reading_ex - Wow, two weeks in a row, I didn’t realise this one had derailed last week too. Ouch. Like I said, not much reading happening.
Closing thoughts:
Definitely by next week I need to figure out what breaks I need in order to chill out a bit – and maybe whether some goals should retire. For now, hurrah, I survived another week!
2 Likes
Opening thoughts:
I haven’t added any breaks yet, because I ended up not sure whether I need any. I’ve managed to be a bit more chilled out this week anyway. So I guess we’ll see what happens!
Derailments:
- /fastfood - Naughty, naughty, I know. I can’t remember quite why we ended up resorting to fastfood when I didn’t have allowance in my goal – possibly just convenience.
- /currentlyreading - I wasn’t really reading enough to keep up with this goal, in the last few weeks. I actually wish I’d set more respite on this one, but oh well. I have decided to derail it again, by starting more books than I finish, not because the end goal isn’t desirable (it still is), but because I could do with the fun of starting new books and just reading based on my whim, rather than trying to finish the same books I’ve been looking at for weeks. So, Beeminder working as intended, and putting a price on the behaviour that doesn’t suit my goal.
- /brighteyes - I think I’ve said this before, but I really don’t understand why I find such a simple goal (using eyedrops) to be so inconvenient. But here we are, I derailed again – and I’ve already lost my buffer again. Not sure what’s to be done about that, but I guess it starts with trying to figure out why I’m finding it so difficult, by observing why I feel reluctant to just do it already when I notice the goal is due/I haven’t added any data yet today.
Changes to existing goals:
- /birthdaybash - Finished and archived! I did all 35 tasks. It was fun; I don’t think I ever actually did the challenge myself back on Habitica, but obviously given the nature of the thing, all of them were easy or at least interesting to me, so it was often just nice to pick a task or two to do.
Closing thoughts:
Soon, very soon even, I’ll need to come up with a new goal for October! Time flies. I don’t currently have any ideas, I must admit. We’ll see, I guess!
3 Likes
Opening thoughts:
I’m… hanging in here. I’m still feeling more stressed than I’d like, but hey-ho. It is what it is!
Derailments:
- /lunch - I’m so bad at eating lunch. That’s why I need a Beeminder goal for it.
- /currentlyreading - As I planned, I let this derail with a high value, to give me some more leeway for a bit while I continue to chip away at my backlog of partly read books, giving me some space to read new books capriciously.
New goals:
- /septbacklog - Once more, I got myself into a bit of a hole with email, so this is for digging me out. I accidentally archived everything in my inbox rather than tag it with “backlog”, too, so I had to start out with all emails I’ve received since August (including ones I’d previously dealt with and archived) in the backlog… but I’ve made some progress already on weeding those out, letting me ratchet down the goal a bit. I have a deadline of the end of the month for finishing up dealing with the backlog. I’m having trouble with new emails piling up again as well, which is annoying; maybe I need an inbox zero goal again for a while…
Changes to existing goals:
- A couple of goals got some short breaks to help me build up buffer again.
Closing thoughts:
I’d kinda hoped to be more put together and less 
by the time the new semester started, but here we are, and I should be getting started on my course work… So by next week, I should get my immunology goal started up again, and give some thought to the pace of my other two modules.
I also need to remember to set some breaks for when I’m attending a wedding toward the end of the month. I might do that the week after, but I really need to keep it in mind, at least.
2 Likes
Opening thoughts:
I’ve hurt my back a little, but so far I’m hanging in there with doing my normal goals. 
I haven’t got to work on my immunology goal again yet partly because of that, and partly because of shenanigans with signing up and getting the course materials.
Derailments:
- /check-in-amy - I just left this one too late, and then decided I wouldn’t risk disturbing her.
So, a derail for me.
Closing thoughts:
As you see, a very quiet week! By next week, I want to set those breaks for the wedding I’m attending. I also really, really need to get started on studying.
1 Like
Opening thoughts:
Well, my back still hurts a bit, but we’re starting to get somewhere. And I have properly started studying. Whew!
Derailments:
- /micronutrients - I got them all out of their bottles and then… never took them. Sigh.
New goals:
- /lshtm_wash - The goal for working on the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) class. I haven’t planned it out far in advance yet; I don’t have a good sense of how long each session takes.
Changes to existing goals:
- Breaks for my trip to a friend’s wedding are in!
- /plank - Currently has a break because of my back issues.
Closing thoughts:
I should start on my third class as well, soon! But I’m happy that this week I made a bit of progress.
2 Likes
Opening thoughts:
It’s not been a bad week, though I’m in a bit of a grumpy mood today. Looking forward to the weekend, to recharge my introvert batteries ready for the wedding I’m attending Monday-Wednesday!
Derailments:
- /2024reading_sav & /2024reading_spring - I just couldn’t fit in enough time to read two books in a single day. I’m trying to get ahead a bit by reading manga/manhua and novellas before ratcheting it down, since the respite of course pushed my rate up even more.
Closing thoughts:
Yeah… I’m just gonna keep it brief this week. Next week my only job is getting back on track with everything after the three days away!
2 Likes
Opening thoughts:
A bit of a whirlwind week, and I can’t believe it’s Friday already. Nor can I believe that it’s November.
Derailments:
- /snackattack - I can’t actually remember what happened here. I think I just left eating my yoghurt too late and had to choose, once more, which goal to derail.
New goals:
- /adventprep - I always make Lisa an “advent calendar” of presents rather than just giving presents on Christmas Day, and somehow November’s started and I don’t even have a plan written out yet. This goal (which is also my New Month’s Resolution goal) is to spend at least 5 minutes on that per day in November. There’s an autoratchet on it so I can’t build up more than 3 days buffer.
Changes to existing goals:
- /plank - I’ve let this goal archive for now, as due to the back issues I’ve been having, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
- /septbacklog - This worked very successfully and the backlog is gone, and while I’m not quite at inbox zero right now in the wake of my trip earlier in the week, I’m pretty close.
Closing thoughts:
I’m hoping to get back to my routine next week, and also start seriously studying again. I’ve lost any head start I built up, so I’m contemplating some sort of short term intensive catch up/get ahead goal… maybe. We’ll see!
3 Likes
Opening thoughts:
I haven’t been feeling so great this week for a number of reasons, so it’s time for a bit of a goal review. Maybe there are a couple of things I can add to help give me a boost, maybe there’s something I can turn off or a rate I can tweak to release some pressure… Let’s start, this week, with reviewing what I’ve got and whether any rates can be tweaked.
Changes to existing goals:
- /mentorroulette - This goal is completed! A “mentor roulette” is a special duty in Final Fantasy XIV which allows an experienced player who has met certain criteria (such as receiving a large number of commendations from other players, and completing all of the role quests associated with the three major roles in the game: healer, tank, and damage-dealer) to join almost any instance in the game, from the most basic content to “extremes”. Battle mentors get queued into anything someone is looking for people for, so one minute you’re helping a newbie complete their first dungeon, and the next you’re jumping into the latest series of raids for level 100 players (thankfully, on normal difficulty).
I got my 2000th mentor roulette yesterday. This goal didn’t track the whole journey, just the last 500, as my energy was starting to flag a bit. I did 667 as tank, 667 as a damage-dealer, and 666 as a healer, over the course of 234 days. Oof! It’s a little strange to be done, but I have my special mount and a lot of fun memories.
And I imagine I’ll be joining mentor roulettes for fun for a long time to come…
- /steps - I think I missed out writing about this back at the time, so I did recently nudge the daily requirement for this one up, after slowly increasing my average number of steps per day. It’s now at 7000 a day and still gaining safety buffer, so another step-up might be in order.
- As for tweaking my rates, everything seems like it’s at a reasonable rate… so instead I added some breaks to a small handful of goals. I don’t really see anything else on the Beeminder front that I want to stop or slow down, though.
Closing thoughts:
My goal review for stuff I might stop doing was disappointing in one way – it’d be nice to have an easy thing to do that takes the pressure off. On the other hand, it’s nice that my goals all feel useful and important!
1 Like
Opening thoughts:
Oh, boy. My overwhelm hasn’t got any less, unfortunately, but I do have a couple of ideas in place to tackle it, so let’s tread water for a bit longer!
Derailments:
- /ironandoj - Left it too late in the day, couldn’t take the iron without eating to pad it out, so skipped it and paid up.
- /micronutrients - Same.
- /2024reading_sprint and /2024reading_sav - I’m just not getting enough time to read around overwhelm/studying/cycling/etc. Probably these more ambitious goals are just getting to the point of being impossible to complete.
- /currentlyreading - This was partly because I didn’t feel like reading, but also because I specifically didn’t feel like reading anything I had on the go. After the derailment (which I deliberately derailed at a high number for extra buffer), I added a break through to the end of the year to give me some more time and leeway to decide how I want this goal to end up.
Closing thoughts:
I think that was it for this week! An unencouraging week, but I’m hoping that changes like carving out more time to study on a Friday (with Simone taking over my inbox slot) will help me get back on an even keel.
2 Likes
Opening thoughts:
This week felt a little better, which was nice. Bitterly cold here, though! At least, for British standards…
Derailments:
- /fastfood - Lisa wanted fastfood and offered to pay for the derailment. I agreed.
Changes to existing goals:
- /gotwheels - My bike’s not suited for icy weather, so I put a break in for a week in hopes that the warmer temperatures promised will arrive next week. Also, because I shouldn’t actually expose my fingers to temperatures below… well, quite warm temperatures, because of Raynaud’s disease, I finally have proper cycling gloves.
- /lshtm_wash - This goal got a retroactive step-up because I did a couple of sections. I hope to do a couple more during my afternoon off, and step it up again… we’ll see. For now it’s set to push me to finish at least one more.
Closing thoughts:
I’m still kinda playing it day by day, but hopefully the optimism of this week will carry through to next!
