shanaqui's Beeminder Journal

[shanaqui]

Another week? Gah.

Derailments: /writinglessons derailed because I’ve come to the end of the lessons I had lined up apart from an editing one. With nothing to edit, there’s no point in starting it right now, so this goal is now also archived.

/weight because… ??? My weight is erratic and a really bad option to beemind (for me), really; this goal primarily exists so I understand how weight goals work for users, with real inputs.

/housework because I was tired.

New goals: /bookblanket_catchup is not new, but it’s been restarted with a goal of +19 by 3rd July (i.e. 12 motifs/week, just under 2/day).

/bookblanket_joinup is new, for joining the motifs once they’re made. Currently I have 10 partially joined, 20 ready and unjoined, and 19 not ready and also obviously not yet joined, so for now it’s got a total of 49 to reach by 5th July, or around 3/day.

Both are starting with some leeway!

It turns out I’ve been beeminding my science blog posts for a year now, and have written quite a few posts as a result. So I’m getting off my butt and making a goal for spending some time researching each week. Right now it’s dialled very conservatively at only 0.25 hours a week.

Changes to existing goals: I mentioned being tired; there’s some stuff going on that is personal, and safeguarding my mental health is more important to me than some of my goals. Some of them I’ve asked for breaks, some of them I’m just swallowing the derailments.

/lightlacethrow is now done! Hurrah Beeminder for guiding me to my first completed blanket. (Along with @narthur’s alpha of Taskratchet – the combo of a set fine for not finishing the object with a Beeminder goal forcing me to make progress really hit the spot!) The deets, for those into crafts: it’s this pattern, with two extra pattern repeats and no edging, because it did not look right in the rather soft yarn I used. The yarn was Women’s Institute “Soft & Smooth” aran weight, 100% acrylic, one 400g skein (used 380g) in “biscuit”. [Yes, for those pricking up their ears, I did choose the yarn because of the name.]

Here’s one pic, but there are more on my Twitter:

It’s a lap blanket and from being underneath it while making it, I can tell you, it’s pretty cosy. Also, though the yarn is acrylic, it feels lovely. Very, well, soft and smooth.

Other comments: Like I said, I’m tired; my brain isn’t a wondrous place to be at the moment. But I’m keepin’ on.

[zedmango]

I thought the TaskRatchet alpha was paused?

[shanaqui]

Indeed it is. Don’t worry, I didn’t get special treatment, and you haven’t missed out on something. I had already made the commitment to finish the blanket by 15th July before the alpha was paused, and commitments already made were still honoured.

[narthur]

And now that I’ve officially quit my day job so I can contract and work on TaskRatchet, I’m hoping to unpause the alpha ASAP.

[shanaqui]

Good morning/afternoon/evening, folks! Turns out a good portion of my tiredness is probably anaemia. Yay.

Derailments: /housework derailed, but I called not-legit because I was having a day out with my sister as a very intentional break. I already used up the small amount of mercy you get on a no-mercy derail though, and am on the edge again. Whyyy.

/inhaler, because once again I put my inhaler in a stupid place and didn’t take it.

New goals: /iron, because anaemia. Turns out that it’s maybe best to take it on alternate days, so that’s my current schedule, and here’s hoping it helps.

Changes to existing goals: I’m doing solid work on the two bookblanket goals, and I’ve increased their end-totals slightly to reflect the books finished since I created the goal. The blanket itself is now a good lap blanket – or poncho for a hedgehog* – and actually almost square. I’ll take a proper progress pic soon!

Anyway, no other changes I can think about, apart from a short flat spot to get /craftathon due on the right day and not on a day I was attending a political protest.

 

*There is a whole story about these hedgehogs and my dad, if I’ve never told it here. And, for that matter, the spotty hippos you can see in the background. Let me know if anyone is actually interested in Dad Stories.

[shanaqui]

Another week down. Time seems to be flying by.

Derailments: /housework, because, well, we were watching Good Omens.

That will prove a theme through this week, as it’s also why I derailed /neatscience and /bookbed.

I also derailed /caloriedeficit after scraping through every day this week, because I just couldn’t face dragging myself out of bed for a walk yesterday.

New goals: /rescuetime, because monitoring my time usage made it clear I really need to focus on just not clicking away to Twitter and so on and my productivity goes way up. With that habit now in place just from watching myself on RescueTime, it’s now time to put my money where my mouth is and ensure it keeps happening!

Changes to existing goals: /checkrescuetime is now set up to archive, since effectively /rescuetime will do that and I’ve decided what to do with the data gathered so far!

Also, my bookblanket catchup goals are being tweaked to account for having a few more motifs to make than when I started.

I think that’s it for this week!

[shanaqui]

Still tired. Gah.

Derailments: /bookblanket_catchup, but it wasn’t legit – I just changed the lane width to get a more accurate end point. /planahead, but again it wasn’t legit: I’d done the task and missed the deadline. /mits, because I forgot what I’d set as my most important tasks, and then didn’t feel like doing it at that stage of the day. /bookbed, because Lisa was too tired to stay up reading.

New goals: /tbrjuly2019 is up and running. The list I’m working from is on my blog, with 20 books on it this month. I’ve read 4/20 so far, so I’m comfortably on track.

I also had a ramble in our chat channel about reading and how much more of it I used to do – I’m currently averaging reading about 200 books a year, but I used to read about 400-500 books a year. I’d like to get back to that, in some ways, so /focusonbook was born. It’s set to 50/day, and I can only enter data from whatever book is my chosen focus at the time. It’s also set to never allow more than 1 day of safety buffer. Thus, hopefully, I’ll always be kept ticking over on my reading goal. As I somewhat expected, it’s rare for me not to keep going once I’ve read 50 pages: it’s like it warms up the engine, and after that… well, it’s certainly sped me up the last couple of days!

I did think about making a time-based goal as well as a pages-based goal, but I don’t want to beemind the fun out of it.

Changes to existing goals: All of my goals that required any physical exercise got a two week flat spot, so they’ll come back once I have more red blood cells again. This was made necessary after a 7 minute workout made me dizzy and near fainting for an hour afterwards. Gah.

(This is assuming that anaemia is the problem; if it isn’t, well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it; it’s safest for my mental health to assume it’s iron-deficiency anaemia, I have a doctor’s appointment booked just in case.)

/bookblanket_catchup and /bookblanket_joinup are both archived, since I’m on track again, and the vanilla /bookblanket goal is now on an autoratchet so hopefully, Beeminder won’t let me get off track again. I’m still using the same method as before to give me a day or two of leeway before I have to make the motif (so I don’t have to be on track Every Single Day). I might change that up and just have a goal to be on track that’s due three times a week, or something. We’ll see how it goes.

In a similar vein, /writethosereviews has been retroratcheted to make it due soon-ish, and an autoratchet has been added. I wrote five reviews today, but there are 13 to go, so… wish me luck.

Other thoughts: If you’re interested in a progress pic or more information about my book blanket, I did a thread about it that turned out minorly popular on twitter.

[matti]

@shanaqui

I’m currently averaging reading about 200 books a year, but I used to read about 400-500 books a year.

EDIT: With my reading speed and the time I have on my hands and if I would do nothing else but reading and I could keep the pace… I could read about 11 books (of about 300 pages) a month, which means it would still take me about 1,5 times more time for 200 books and about 3 times more for 400 … about 3,5 times more for 500! Not to mention that this is a completely unrealistic scenario and could never really happen. My. mind. is. blown.

[shanaqui]

I don’t really know how I used to do it, to be quite honest. I used to have less time, if I’m calculating my studying time and so on right, but I read so much! At the moment I’m averaging a book a day, but usually that only holds when nothing else comes up.

[shanaqui]

Derailments: /nofudge derailed because I couldn’t get accurate calorie counts from a restaurant. So that was non-legit.

New goals: None, I think.

Changes to existing goals: /nofudge has gone from 4 days a week to 5, because I always intended to get stricter about having to enter my calories exactly!

Other thoughts: I am reading a ton! I finished a book a day for 11 days running. Sadly, I might break the streak today because I have another goal actually derailing, but oh well. I might ameliorate that somewhat by finishing a book which isn’t on this month’s TBR, but is a bit shorter and on my to-read list anyway. Here is my beautifully steppy graph just for posterity, before I ruin it tonight:

I am beginning to feel better from the anaemia, possibly? I’m not certain yet, but I think I have more energy and I’m definitely having less trouble with heart palpitations. So that’s good, and maybe soon I’ll be back on the road with my exercise goals.

[phi]

@shanaqui

I am beginning to feel better from the anaemia, possibly?

Possibly? That is not a “if I actually have anaemia, the doctor’s appointment is still in the future” possibly, is it? Just curious! Good to hear regardless

[shanaqui]

@phi

Possibly? That is not a “if I actually have anaemia, the doctor’s appointment is still in the future” possibly, is it?

At the moment, I still have the doctor’s appointment in case a) it’s not anaemia or b) the anaemia isn’t resolving fast enough. Buuut since I have a history of iron-deficiency anaemia and I can name at least two non-medical reasons I would be anaemic right now, if the symptoms resolve, I’ll cancel the appointment. (As per discussion with the handy doctor in the family, not because I don’t like going to doctors!*)

 

*This is not the case. In fact, given that I am a hypochondriac and know it, I would go to the doctor very often if I could. It’s quite important I don’t frivolously go to the doctor. Partly because every time I do and it’s nothing, they get quite annoyed with me** and partly because going to the doctor reinforces the loop in my brain.

**They shouldn’t, because if I’m there, I’m in distress and deserve to have my mental illness treated, but doctors are human too and all they can see in their squeezed and hectic schedules is that my appointment could have been used for someone with an actual physical ailment.

[shanaqui]

Derailments: /water, because… I don’t really know why? Filling my water bottle was just too much effort.

/teeth derailed because I pulled an all-nighter for (non-Beeminder) work. I called not-legit on this one; I lost all my routine because of the lack of sleep, and that’s very rare for me.

New goals: /sleep, because my /sleeptown goal on its own doesn’t quite work – it locks my phone, but that doesn’t mean I’m actually catching any Zs.

Changes to existing goals: I got a bit more flat spot on one of my physical activity goals, but I’m actually pretty ready to resume all that now. I think the iron tablets are working, but we’ll see how a gentle return to activity goes.

Other thoughts: My reading slowed down a bit this week, partly because of the work stuff I mentioned. I’ve just started on a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time but find a little intimidating, which might be an interesting test of the /focusonbook goal. I did find that when I was reading a book at the pace set by that goal, it was because I wasn’t enjoying it. I ended up deciding to mark it as did-not-finish and go on with my life, because that was actually a waste of time. So that goal might end up being, more than anything else, an interesting indicator of when something really isn’t working for me.

My /beemergencies goal is great in one way, because it encourages me not to live life on the edge. But when I am having to let things go a bit or I just don’t feel well, it’s a bit of a bummer to so quickly lose my progress. Not sure what to do about this. Possibly the answer is to set myself some future extra buffer as soon as the going gets tough.

[philip]

@shanaqui

Filling my water bottle was just too much effort.

What existing habit could you chain this to? Like making sure that it’s full before going to bed, before taking your current book off the shelf, or whatever.

I get good mileage out of physical cues in my environment, provided that I don’t start ignoring them. e.g. if your water bottle is always sitting waiting on top of your current book, you have to move it in order to read, could use that as a trigger to make sure it’s full, or drink some, or whatever.

[shanaqui]

It’s a good idea, but I’m not sure what to chain it to yet… Maybe something for the bunnies. I’m likely to stick to taking care of them much better than anything else in my day.

[shanaqui]

Derailments: /tbrjuly2019, twice. It’s legit, though I do have a good excuse, namely one of our rabbits is very badly sick*, since Sunday, and we’ve been nursing him intensively. For that reason, just before the second derailment I set the days of mercy to 10 and decided to give up on this goal. /sleeptown also derailed, legit, I could’ve got to bed on time and did not.

/walkies, not legit because we literally don’t feel we can both leave the house at once, so that’s a physical impediment. /teeth derailed, not legit because I was just a couple of minutes late with the datapoint.

New goals: /codecademy, because I needed something new to keep my mind off things, and doing a basic web development course in a structured way sounded ideal. The goal requires half an hour a day, IIRC. This goal might not last to the akrasia horizon, though – depends on how useful codecademy is once my pro trial runs out.

Changes to existing goals: /getmoving got some additional flat spot because there’s no room in the flat right now and I didn’t feel okay leaving Breakfast and going out for a walk, yet.

Other comments: I could call not-legit on all my derailments this week, because I was super stressed about the bun – it’s so disruptive and his symptoms are very distressing. But… my Beeminder goals are meant to keep me going unless things are physically impossible, and most of the time this week, I could’ve kept going.

 

*The rabbit is Breakfast, aka the bun who has appeared in several Beeminder pics with me and is in my pic on the Team page. He’s got an intracellular parasite called Encephalitozoon caniculi, which targets the brain and causes… well, all the kinds of symptoms you would expect from something that has “encephalitis” in the name. It can’t be vaccinated against but you can ask your vets about preventative treatment. No one ever told us this, but now if you ever get rabbits, you’ll know.

It’s horrible and we’ve been terrified for Breakfast. Even if he pulls through, he will probably have permanent disabilities.

[shanaqui]

The sick rabbit I mentioned, Breakfast, is gone. I had this more or less written up anyway, so here goes, carrying on as normal.

Derailments: /bookblanket, legit; I just wanted to play my videogame instead. So I did. /water, also legit; I didn’t drink because both my Sass & Belle bottles were in the dishwasher, so I forgot, and then I did not want to chug two glasses of water right before bed.

New goals: I got rid of /codecademy (which was linked to Rescuetime and solely tracked time on the codecademy website) and created /learnwebdev (which is still linked to Rescuetime, but to a custom category that includes codecademy, Visual Studio Code, and whatever other resources come up). Also /tbraugust2019 is now in business, for this reading list.

Changes to existing goals: I decreased the $30 pledges down to $10 on my /fastfood and /mits goals since I’ve been successful on those for a while. Likewise, /caloriedeficit and /neatscience down to $5 and /planahead, /journal and /inboxzeroes down to $0, just because that felt like the right level for those right now. I’m archiving /forest, as it didn’t really do much for my day.

/breakfasttime as a goal was archived immediately by support (thanks, @dreev, for that and everything related). I put in breaks for /nosetonose, /cuddleclair and /nouptime, because the remaining three bunnies will be taken care of by our usual boarder while we’re on our planned holiday. I haven’t checked on my other goals for what needs a break yet; I should do that tomorrow.

Other comments: N/a.

[shanaqui]

Derailments: /housework and /craftathon both derailed on Saturday, so I called not-legit; I was just too tired and too sad for it to be physically possible.

/inhaler derailed on Saturday, but I really could have managed to keep taking my inhaler, so that was legit. /nofudge derailed and that was legit; we ate ice cream and cookie dough for our anniversary (3rd wedding anniversary/14th of being together) and I could not face working out the number of calories that meant I’d need to put into Fitbit, so I purposefully just guesstimated and took the hit. When /nofudge derailed again, I called not legit, though; my reminders were set to start at 6pm for some silly reason (I think it’s my account-level default), so I didn’t keep proper track of what I was eating.

/housework also derailed and I called not legit because I physically felt too awful to manage it. (The anaemia was improving a lot, but I had another dip in iron levels and haven’t pulled back out of it yet, that’s all.)

/walkies derailed, and that was legit; I didn’t want to bother with it, but I probably physically could have/should have.

There were a couple of other non-legit derails where I didn’t enter data in time.

New goals: N/a.

Changes to existing goals: Lots of goals got a week’s break for when I’m at Worldcon in Dublin. /activeminutes has switched from skatesum aggregation to sum, because it was just too frustrating to never be able to earn buffer. The commitment went up, though, and it now has an autoratchet. I upped the rate on /reviewcommitsto, since ideally I want to do that every day.

TaskRatchet Fails: Set myself to finish Marie Brennan’s Within the Sanctuary of Wings by the end of the 7th, and didn’t because I got distracted by Do Not Feed The Monkeys. Oops.

Other comments: Might not check in next week as I will be in Dublin, at Worldcon. If any of y’all are attending and are also Habitica users, keep an eye on the Habitica news for how to rendezvous with me and get some Habitica swag.

[shanaqui]

Derailments: /inhaler derailed, legit. I need to figure out why I’m not managing to take it and fix it, because this is so simple NOT to fail at. Other legit derails, mostly because of the holiday disruption: /planhead, /focusonbook, /bookblanket, /tbraugust2019.

New goals: N/a.

Changes to existing goals: /planahead is archiving, because it’s not really working for me.

TaskRatchet Fails: I failed at reading and reviewing Marie Brennan’s new book in time. Oops.

Other comments: This is kind of a scanty report because I wasn’t keeping notes. Our holiday was fun but overwhelming; it’ll be nice to get back into our routine.

[shanaqui]

Derailments: /learnwebdev, because I couldn’t be bothered and it was at $0 anyway. /mits, because I kept forgetting to check what I’d set or change them in time. /tbraugust2019, because I just kind of ran out of steam, and also overestimated how much time I’d have for reading at the convention – and how tired I’d be after the convention!

New goals: N/a.

Changes to existing goals: I’ve scheduled a couple of 1-2 day breaks in goals to help me get back on top of maintaining safety buffer for them.

TaskRatchet Fails: N/a.

Other comments: I’m really really tired, and dropping back into anaemia territory again, and it sucks. My anxiety’s up, too. One of these days, I should schedule a holiday that will actually be a holiday. Maybe a weekend off sometime? Working 7 days a week, every week, almost without stopping for a year now is… taking a certain toll. I mean, I need the hours, and the constant work is my choice, and you’d think that the daily free time (I work about four hours on an average day, sometimes a little less) would be enough, but… possibly because of all the switching between activities, I’ve never yet made it work for me as it should.