April Review

Here’s a review of my goals and achievements in April (wow, there were a lot of them) with a somewhat arbitrary rating out of five and a brief description of my goals for next month. I rearranged them into a new order which I intend to follow for May’s entries. It’s gonna be a great month!

NO VIDEO GAMES: 3/5

I haven’t played a lot of video games this month, aside from my Subnautica binge after I got my new computer. In fact, I think it’s been over a week since I’ve touched any. I’m not strictly prohibiting myself anymore (though I would like to), but I’m trying to tell myself that I’m not the kind of person who likes video games, or rather that the things I like in video games can be achieved in real life, I just have to work at finding out how. We’ll see how long that works. My stopgap measure is going to be to tell Mom when I think I’ll be tempted to play too much (e.g. when the new Terraria update comes out). I might even set up my workstation downstairs.

GOAL: before resorting to video games in my boredom, make a list of other things that I enjoy and can do, and then read my identity mantra. If I have reason to suspect that I might get sucked in, I’ll tell Mom.

NO FANFICTION: 2/5

I’ve found that when I’m interested in the book that I’m reading, like when I was reading Pride and Prejudice or the books about chemistry, I’m not so tempted by fanfiction. In the past week I’ve tried to read two difficult books of fiction—Gone with the Wind and The Power and the Glory—which just led me back to trying fanfiction. From now on I’m going to read a book long enough to feel if it can hook me or not (at least 20 pages, depending on the type of book), and if it fails I’ll tell myself to move on to another book. I’m a completionist when it comes to reading, especially when I feel that the book is worth it, but I’ll cover more ground and be more productive if I drop things that don’t keep my attention. Besides, since college, how many books have I managed to finish through willpower which I still appreciate? I can’t think of a single book in English that meets that description.

GOAL: give each book a 20 to 30-minute trial (probably at breakfast and lunch). If, at my next reading opportunity, I don’t want to continue reading it, I can choose a new book. If I can’t find a book that I want to read, only then can I read fanfiction.

COOKING: 4/5

I’m not exactly happy with this, but I’ve cooked when Mom requested it. The situation is still unfamiliar to us all, and it will hopefully change in the near future, so I’m not sure it’s worth trying to set up a schedule. I’ve only found one recipe to keep this month, the others being only tolerable.

GOAL: Continue cooking as requested.

WRITING AND REFLECTION: 4/5

I skipped the week after my birthday because I was obsessing over Subnautica, but April’s post count is the highest of any month aside from January, so I think I did quite well. The structure of my format is helpful, but I’m considering setting up a more dynamic version that I might be able to use on my website.

GOAL: Write at least 20 entries in May.

SCHOOLWORK: 3.5/5

My goal was to use 15-45 minutes sessions to work four hours a day. The sessions have worked well. As for four hours, I’ve only managed that about once a week. However, it’s looking more plausible in the future as I get accustomed to three-hour days. For this week (probably from today), I’ll probably do four-hour days just to be able to finish the work. Next week will be lighter though, and then I’ll probably have a break. Honestly, I think three-hour days should be sufficient most weeks, but four hours would help me work ahead, so I might still aim for it when I start the next semester.

GOAL: maintain a 3-hour-day (but 4 hours for the next few days).

JOB: 4/5

This area was kind of vague, but I still worked on it and made some progress. The virus situation isn’t exactly calming down yet, but the deadline is a lot closer than it was when I wrote my original goal. Anyway, I’ve made satisfactory progress on this because I’ve worked on application materials which will soon be ready.

GOAL: Apply to at least 10 companies. Update social media profiles. Set up a personal website.

EXERCISE: 2.5/5

My rating for this goal is based on my consistent planking, and the fact that I haven’t completely neglected cardio. I never set a concrete goal despite writing that I would. That’s something to remember—don’t write a goal to write a goal because it doesn’t work. Ah, one goal was to do a five-minute plank. I did 2:35 today. I might have been able to hold out until 3:00, but at 2:30 I felt myself unable to maintain proper form. Planking for five minutes is apparently a lot more difficult than I expected, considering that I have worked on it consistently for the last three weeks and before that on and off for almost two more months. It’s more of a long-term goal than I thought, so I’ll give it up for the near future.

GOAL: Continue planking every day, using app. Be able to complete beginner day 30 in a single workout by the end of the month. Do cardio three times a week.

CLEANING: 3/5

I vacuumed a few times and cleaned bathrooms, but on the whole, I felt a bit uncomfortable cleaning after exercising. I should request a list of things to do from Mom so that I don’t have to think about it, which leads to inaction.

GOAL: Get a list of tasks from Mom. Work on them at least twice a week after exercising.

SPANISH: 4/5

I worked fairly consistently on this. Not to the extent that I was hoping, but well enough. I also formulated a few short-term goals which I’m pursuing diligently. I need to find a way to exercise production, but nothing that I will be able to maintain comes to mind.

GOAL: Finish up to unit 6 on studyspanish.com. Start studying for the CLEP test. For the fifth point, find a productive way to use Spanish and use it consistently.

DIY:

I got started on a patio table and reached the point where I will start putting it together the next time I work on it. I learned how to sand wood for this kind of project (hopefully) and how to use a miter saw.

GOAL: Finish the patio table. Choose my next project.

PROGRAMMING:

I only decided to start working on this a week and a half ago, so I haven’t made a lot of progress. I did set up the environment on my new computer and start working on the Foodmaster project, and I wrote two very basic apps in Android Studio by following tutorials.

GOAL: Adjust and improve functionality of Bible Memory program so that it has no bugs in a certain mode. Write Foodmaster program to the point that it can save and load dishes and generate menus based on these dishes.

BIBLE MEMORY: 4/5

My goal was to review up to Psalm 31. I fell far short of that—reviewing the old verses took longer and I wasn’t satisfied with barely making 90% accuracy. Even so, I was quite consistent with my reviewing, and I don’t think I could have made much more progress while still achieving such good accuracy. This month I reviewed up to Psalm 24.

GOAL: Review up to Psalm 30. Psalm 31 will give me the fifth point.

BIBLE READING AND PRAYER: 2/5

I would say that the rating reflects the ratio of days that I did this. I finished Mark and I’m nearing the end of March in the Tim Keller devotional. I had a few really good days of prayer. I’m making progress—I just need to be more consistent.

GOAL: Read and pray, every day! No limitations, just do it.

Say goodbye to:

MUSIC: 0/5

I gave up on this because of technical difficulties, lack of time, and lack of motivation. I don’t intend to work on this in any regular capacity any time soon.

RUBIK’S CUBE: 3/5

I am a lot more familiar with OLL algorithms and can use them without much hesitation, so the most well-defined goal was accomplished. My next step is getting better at F2L, but I don’t have a concrete plan for doing this. Hence, this month I think I’ll take it casual and improve imperceptibly. I might post about cubing in my intro, but I won’t have it as a separate goal.