Programming/Action

Today I’m trying out my programming/action phase plan, and right now is my programming phase. I’ve already made a few adjustments to my schedule before entering this phase, but I’ve tried to minimize them. Last night I was reading until almost one because I didn’t feel sleepy. As a result, I gave myself the freedom to wake up without an alarm, and therefore began my day 20 minutes later than planned. Preparing for the day with breakfast and a shower also took 15 minutes longer than planned, so I’m now 35 minutes behind schedule. I’m hoping to cut the programming phase short though, since I already wrote a lot yesterday and did my planning for today as well.

One thing I realized after making up this schedule is that from the way the motivational course laid it out, these are things that will become habits, rather than the entirety of the day. Schoolwork is probably not going to become a habit. I’m not sure. Regardless, I’m trying it out my way by scheduling something for the majority of the day. I find that mere time-based cues can be insufficient to remove me from the activity that I’m currently engaged in, so in the future I may limit my planning to being around (more or less) fixed events. From waking up to breakfast is my best time to establish a habit, then after breakfast is good too. After lunch should work most days, but after dinner Mom likes to play games, and before bed I can’t make myself do much other than read. If I wake up earlier then, I might have more time for habits.

Yesterday I read Cheaper By the Dozen, and though there wasn’t a whole lot of substance, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and fully intend (unlike with some of the books I’ve reread) to keep it. I then started reading a textbook from GCC that I never actually read at the time, called “How the Rest Hates the West.” It’s kind of a diatribe though (not the word I’m looking for, but I can’t find it). It’s a one-sided, unashamedly biased analysis of recent historical events. I agree with everything the author said, but I don’t see much point in reading a book that gets my blood boiling, causes me to rail about the injustices, contradictions, and idiocies of the world, without giving me facts. So finally I read nearly half of Pride and Prejudice before getting sleepy. I managed to go the whole day without any video games or fanfiction, for the first time since the beginning of March.

Here’s the update on my goals:

SCHOOLWORK
I only worked on this for 70 minutes Thursday. It was a productive time and I felt satisfied with my progress, but I really need to invest a bit more into schoolwork on a daily basis so that I don’t get crunched on the weekend. I’m hoping that today I will meet my goal of 3 hours, and if I can match that on Saturday as well then I shouldn’t have to panic on Sunday.

EXERCISE
The plank exercise was quite tough this morning. I’m going to row later today—I hope blisters don’t prevent me.

SPANISH
I did my 5 minute vocabulary app (Drops) and one lesson of from the grammar website. I need to find a new podcast since the one I found before is about half English, and since it doesn’t repeat the Spanish after giving the English translation, it doesn’t really help me learn the words.

RUBIK’S CUBE
I did this a couple of times yesterday without timing myself. I haven’t really done it since my birthday. I think I still remember all the OLL algorithms, but I’m having trouble identifying when to use them again.

PROJECTS
I have chosen a woodworking project that I intend to start on. It’s simple and should be good for a beginner like me. Today I’ll get Mom’s approval to make it and verify that we have the tools with Dad. Then I’ll have to get the materials, which I may not be able to do for a couple of days. Today I also have a phone call to make, which I’ll do during this time.

MEMORIZATION
I did well yesterday except that there was one verse in Psalm 19 that I still couldn’t type with more than 90% accuracy. Still, I think that I will start on Psalm 21 today.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER
I read Mark 11, which was short. Prayer was not too difficult today. I didn’t get anything in particular out of the Keller book.