Juliebarkley has a plan

[juliebarkley]

I apologize in advance for the wall of text that follows.

 

I failed to post much on my last challenge, boo me. However, I did figure out what I wanted to do with the challenge - figure out why my previous challenges and attempts to make habits had not gone as I had hoped, and figure out how I was going to set that right. And I have indeed worked hard on that.

 

For the last whole bunch of challenges, I have focused very hard on creating new habits, but only minimally succeeded. Yet when I set fixed goals, I mostly succeed very well indeed. Why is this? Because the goal gives me something concrete to work towards, a destination, whereas a habit feels never-ending and amorphous. I also realized missed an important component. I have completely neglected to set target times (the T of the SMART goal system) on my big goals, which has made it harder for the smaller goals and habits to push towards something meaningful. Instead, procrastination takes over because I don't have a way to know if I am on track or not.

 

I have also been planning my challenges in a backwards way. I realized this after I had to write out a development plan at work (which are a lot more like planning challenges than you might think). Rather than first figure out what big goal I want to work toward, set a target date, then start breaking that down into smaller and smaller pieces (big to little), I have been figuring out something that could be a step towards a big goal, and then hoping that it will mesh with some other step later (little to big). And it has resulted in lots of little flurries of activity that never coalesce into anything much in the end. And since the habits don't feel like they're pushing me to a bigger goal, they never really stuck.

 

So, last challenge, I broke down my life into categories. I used D&D attributes because hey, nerd (they also cover the bases surprisingly well): all the usual stats, plus the occupation proficiencies, arts/skills proficiencies, and languages. I thought about what I really wanted from my life in five years time, laid those out, then made sure that I had something for each category so that my life wouldn't end up imbalanced. I broke those goals into yearly goals, then took the first yearly goal and set out my first monthly goals. And now here I am, with a plan.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

STR: I am hoping to work on skills that target the four major groups of exercises: push (pushups), pull (pullups), legs (pistols), and core (plank). However, I will not start them this challenge as I have unfortunately fallen out of my good solid exercise habit since October, shock horror! So the challenge this month will be to regain this habit. I have set exercise days, and a bunch of fun random exercises to do, so I can do what I like as long as I am keeping the habit alive. The only exercise I want to do every session is a plank. I will measure my time and try to increase it a little every time. I will also select progressions for the other skills I want to learn so that I have a roadmap for the future.

 

DEX: I will practice handstands daily.

 

CON: I have been a lazy slug, and winter doesn't help. I will put on my fitness watch and get 5000 steps in every day. That does not sound like a lot, but I have not even been making that. Oh the shame.

 

INT: I will read for 15 minutes minimum per day from a book, paper or digital. I want to read more of the "classic" works - both actual classic literature, and the foundational scifi and mystery (and maybe fantasy?). To support this, I will find a list for the scifi and mystery (I think I stumbled across a mystery one yesterday, and I'm certain I've seen a scifi one before). I have one for classics, but I'd kind of like to hit a variety of time periods, so I'll probably build my own 10x10 list. So I will come up with the categories for the list I want to make at minimum.

 

WIS: Anyone who has been following my challenges knows that I struggle mightily to get myself to interrupt my activities and go do my prayers dangit, so no big surprise: prayer is on the list again. I'm going to try for every day, but it's not a target as such. I'm going to record whenever I do it and celebrate that, rather than getting mad at myself and feeling guilty for my failures. I'm also going to watch a khutba (sermon) every Friday or Saturday since I cannot attend a service in person.

 

CHA: I have actually already done what I had assigned for this month! I have invited two coworkers and a person I'd like to build a friendship with to come over for board games and just getting to know each other better.

 

Occupation: This is a big one for me goalwise. My eventual goal is to make enough money to support myself without having a location-dependent job. I have signed up for and been taking classes for voice over, and I need to get my butt in gear if I want to get it off the ground. I also have investments to manage and dabble in other online work that isn't well-paying, but are easy money and actually do build marketable skills. So this month, I will get my home studio set up. I will finish up an organizational project I have been doing related to investing. And I will do at minimum, a tiny bit of transcription every week.

 

Arts/Skills: I will complete the Gs and Hs of my book project (or try to; I may not make it!). I will repair items in my repair pile for the duration of one podcast at least 3 times per week.

 

Languages: I will do one crown on each of French, Esperanto, and Spanish every day. I will do the online French test that estimates your current ability level.

 

Here ends wall of text. I extend to you my apologies and appreciation if you have made it this far.

 

[Scaly Freak]

4 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

INT: I will read for 15 minutes minimum per day from a book, paper or digital. I want to read more of the "classic" works - both actual classic literature, and the foundational scifi and mystery (and maybe fantasy?). To support this, I will find a list for the scifi and mystery (I think I stumbled across a mystery one yesterday, and I'm certain I've seen a scifi one before). I have one for classics, but I'd kind of like to hit a variety of time periods, so I'll probably build my own 10x10 list. So I will come up with the categories for the list I want to make at minimum.

 

You should come visit the Reading Challenge Thread in the PVP forum with us. Lots of good recommendations and moral reading support.

 

I love your D&D approach. Are you planning to expand to awarding yourself experience points so you can level up as well?

[juliebarkley]

20 hours ago, Scalyfreak said:

You should come visit the Reading Challenge Thread in the PVP forum with us. Lots of good recommendations and moral reading support.

 

I love your D&D approach. Are you planning to expand to awarding yourself experience points so you can level up as well?

Thanks! I'll check out the PVP. I've not put any thought into a levelling system yet - building the plan was taxing enough. Later, though...

 

STR: My plank was 95 seconds, which was a heck of a lot better than I was expecting.

 

DEX: I should have done this earlier in the day.

 

CON: My watch didn't go on till later in the day because it was not charged, but it says I only hit 601. That's probably accurate as well. Oh my.

 

INT: Started Under the Egg because it looks fun.

 

WIS: The one time I was getting up for prayers, my son wanted me to help him with his work. He is behind, so I didn't want to say no.

 

CHA: All done!

 

Occupation: Nothing today.

 

Arts/Skills: Completed one repair item (though it took 2 podcasts), and 1/3 of the G pile.

 

Languages: Three crowns achieved.

[juliebarkley]

STR: Will plank later today and edit it in (edit: 101 seconds). I messed up my exercise scheduling, so I'm pretty sure I missed my exercise day in there somewhere. It's fixed now, so it won't happen again.

 

DEX: I am coming down with something and my balance is not what it should be. I'm going to leave this for today.

 

CON: I need to reset this watch - the date and time are wrong and it combined today's walking and yesterday's, and I'm not sure of the totals for either.

 

INT: I may well finish my book tonight.

 

WIS: Not so much yet. I got home from work, went to sleep almost immediately, then had some stuff I had to take care of ASAP.

 

CHA: All done!

 

Occupation: I joined a 5-day entrepreneur mindset challenge last week, and I have somehow become the leader of an accountability group. This is kind of cool, but also scary as I have no idea what I am doing. Today I set up the group infrastructure, so I learned how to set up a group chat in Facebook, start a Facebook group, and start a Zoom meeting - all things I have never done before.

 

Arts/Skills: I finished checking the G pile yesterday! I really need to get started on a stitch along I signed up for this year.

 

Languages: Three crowns achieved.

[juliebarkley]

Didn't do much today - just my reading, not even my DuoLingo. I was pretty beat when I got home from work, having trouble breathing (stupid cold), and feeling really chilly. Couldn't focus. So I just wrapped myself up in a blanket on the couch this evening. Fingers crossed I feel more energetic tomorrow. I have all day free, so I am looking forward to making a dent in some of my tasks.

 

Side note: I love knowing exactly what I need to be working on next! It takes the stressful decision-making part of things right out of the equation, and tells me just how to get back on track when I fall down (like today). Challenges are awesome.

[Scaly Freak]

6 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

Didn't do much today - just my reading, not even my DuoLingo. I was pretty beat when I got home from work, having trouble breathing (stupid cold), and feeling really chilly. Couldn't focus. So I just wrapped myself up in a blanket on the couch this evening. Fingers crossed I feel more energetic tomorrow.

 

You made the right decision. Breathing is a prerequisite for doing almost anything. Get better soon!

[juliebarkley]

This summary cover a few days.

 

STR: No exercise done due to illness.

 

DEX: Ditto.

 

CON: Again, due to illness, moving hurt and I avoided it when possible.

 

INT:  I read from a new book for the last couple of days, but neglected to today despite being near bedridden. Oops.

 

WIS: One day I got two prayers in! Plus I listened to my khutba today.

 

CHA: All done!

 

Occupation: I ordered a couple of items that I need for my home studio. Somehow ordering things online takes far longer than I think it will since I am naturally inclined to research things to death.

 

Arts/Skills: I stitched on a repair project while listening to a podcast. Well, not really a repair project, a sewing project with seams that need finishing. I also started my stitch-along. It is still just a really long black line that will eventually become an outline, but it's a start!

 

Languages: Three crowns achieved.

[WhiteGhost]

Hey, D&D attributes based challenge buddy!   I have not been doing so well on this challenge, but I like the concept. Following along! 

 

Also,  go pray, dang it!

 

[juliebarkley]

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Hey, D&D attributes based challenge buddy!   I have not been doing so well on this challenge, but I like the concept. Following along!

 

Well howdy! Fancy meeting you here!

 

Hey, D&D attributes based challenge buddy!   I have not been doing so well on this challenge, but I like the concept. Following along! 

 

Also,  go pray, dang it!

 

 

Ah, if only it were so easy! Wait, it can be. Ok, challenge accepted! I'll be back in five....

 

 ........................

 

And here we are back! Looks like I just need someone to tell me what to do in a stern voice. Are you for hire?

 

STR: I feel like today should have been an exercise day, but it didn't come up on my calendar since I "fixed" it. I was sick then so I didn't double check, but perhaps I should now. Regardless, I did a plank yesterday, with a time of 106 seconds.

 

DEX: I did some crow pose yesterday, and held it for seven seconds. I really want to be able to hold it consistently for 5-10 seconds before returning to wall handstands. My hands aren't that strong, so the balance element of crow pose makes it good practice right now. I should probably work on wrist mobility a bit, too.

 

CON: I am still recovering from whatever I had, and the last two days have followed the same pattern. I feel fine, but later in the day I may get some chills or other symptoms return, and after any physical effort (like crow pose above), I get out of breath very easily. I have not walked much. It is hard to tell if I should have set my target lower, or if I would have done it if healthy.

 

INT:  Yes, read from the same book today and yesterday. It's pretty short, so it'll be done soon. While sorting books I found a couple that will likely be in my get rid of pile as I have them as ebooks, but I would quite like to read them now!

 

WIS: One prayer yesterday and now one today, thanks to @WhiteGhost!

 

CHA: All done!

 

Occupation: The accountability group met up on Sunday, so we got to know each other and set goals for the week to come. I have signed up for my classes today, so that leaves creating profiles for some websites.

 

Arts/Skills: I think I will do some sewing once this post is done. I'm not sure whether it's going to be on a repair item or my stitch-along yet.

 

Languages: Three crowns achieved.

[Scaly Freak]

5 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

Ah, if only it were so easy! Wait, it can be. Ok, challenge accepted! I'll be back in five....

 

This made me chuckle a little bit. It's also a good reminder, that sometimes it really is as easy as just doing something.

[juliebarkley]

STR: Plank today of 127 seconds!

 

DEX: I really should have done this earlier. Now my arms are too tired.

 

CON: Well, I walked more than I have all challenge, but I did not come close to 5000, nope nope.

 

INT:  Yes to reading.

 

WIS: Okay, let's make this a thing! One today.

 

CHA: All done!

 

Occupation: Nothing today.

 

Arts/Skills: I did not end up doing any sewing, and none today, either. I did a few minutes of preliminary sorting on the H books, though.

 

Languages: Three crowns achieved.

[juliebarkley]

STR: Plank today of 129 seconds. That was much harder than my previous planks.

 

DEX: Crow pose is getting easier. I can balance for 5-10 seconds fairly consistently now, and with few false starts. I am looking forward to walking up the wall again.

 

CON: This walking thing is not going well. I think the best I have done yet was approaching 4000 steps. The worst does not bear mentioning.

 

INT:  Reading has been happening, and it has been a very good thing. I am planning to get some booklists together tonight or tomorrow.

 

WIS: I have slacked a bit here. In the spirit of "do it when you're thinking of it", this will be my first action after this post.

 

CHA: All done! Though no one has given me an actual date to meet up yet...

 

Occupation: I got all of my tasks done last week that I said I would do for the accountability group. We had another meeting today, and I set new goals. I also learned a thing. Apparently, some companies will check places like Fiverr, where people get cheap voice over work, and if they see the name of someone that has auditioned for them there, they blacklist them because they "cheapen" the image of the brand by using those sites. I've heard that it's a good idea to create a stage name - a normal-sounding name - for these sites to protect your "brand".

 

So now I need a stage name. I'm not good at naming. Witness my gloriously creative username here. Any suggestions???

 

Arts/Skills: I spent quite a bit of time today sewing outlines for the stitch-a-long I signed up for. There's still quite a bit of outlining to be done, but it's starting to look like an actual project! I haven't done any of the weekly fill-ins, but they look relatively quick and exciting compared to the outlines, so I don't mind that.

 

Languages: Three crowns achieved. This "one crown/language/day" is enough to keep me near the top of the leagues, and I am now in the Emerald League. I am interested to see how high they go.

[WhiteGhost]

18 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

So now I need a stage name. I'm not good at naming. Witness my gloriously creative username here. Any suggestions???

Jewel Brackenly? 

Julia Barkenridge? 

Jackie Chang? 

 

Is there any kind of image you want to project with your alternate ego or just something to disguise your true identity? 

[Scaly Freak]

18 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

So now I need a stage name. I'm not good at naming. Witness my gloriously creative username here. Any suggestions???

 

Go to a baby names website and look up popular names for the gender you want, from the year you were born, and the year right before or after if you can't find a good one in your year. Then go to IMDB.com and look up the full credits for your favorite movie. Pick a last name that goes well with the first name you've already picked.

 

Done.  

[juliebarkley]

On 1/27/2020 at 9:14 PM, WhiteGhost said:

Jewel Brackenly? 

Julia Barkenridge? 

Jackie Chang? 

Ah ha ha. No. But thanks for that!

 

On 1/27/2020 at 9:19 PM, Scalyfreak said:

Go to a baby names website and look up popular names for the gender you want, from the year you were born, and the year right before or after if you can't find a good one in your year. Then go to IMDB.com and look up the full credits for your favorite movie. Pick a last name that goes well with the first name you've already picked.

 

Done.

That would have worked. I ended up picking a slightly unusual first name and very common last name that sound like they could read anything. I may change it, but it's good enough for now.

 

Challenge sum-up:

 

STR: I did not plank in the last week. I have been pleasantly surprised at how long I can hold a high plank! But I need to be more consistent. I failed utterly to restart my exercise habit: I had to switch my workout days and never quite caught the rhythm. I did find some progressions for the skills that I want to learn as well.

 

DEX: I did not practice this in the last week, either (darn you, slug mode). However, during the challenge I did see noticeable improvement in both strength and stability. Again, consistency was missing.

 

CON: I have learned that my walking baseline is unfortunately much lower than I had thought. I will take this into account when setting my next goal.

 

INT:  So one big reason for the slug mode? I went DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE of booklists. I ended up jettisoning my original plan (making my own list of classics, 10 groups of 10 books by theme) and just bookmarking a TON of lists in LibraryThing. If I don't know what to read next, I will pull one up at random and pick something off it. Mark it off in LT and it will check it off on every list where it appears. Pretty neat. I also found a cool website called Worlds Without End that keeps track of similar stats, but for scifi and fantasy. I did find and keep one mystery list (it appears to be from the book 1001 Midnights) as good mystery lists were hard to find.

 

WIS: I have done better than previous months here, but still not as well as I'd like. On the plus side, I have been watching a lecture every week and really enjoying that.

 

CHA: Still trying to arrange times to meet up with people, but I took the step to contact them, which is more (far more) than I would normally do.

 

Occupation: I have more tasks here that need doing, but I feel like I am making progress. I really need to PRACTICE MORE to get myself ready for coaching. My basic studio setup is in place. No soundproofing work done yet, but that wasn't on the agenda for this challenge. The investment task is not done, but it is my goal for the week, so fingers crossed it'll be done by the end of the week. And I have been doing a bit of transcription as well. So I'm happy with my results here.

 

Arts/Skills: I did lots of sewing, though probably more on my stitch-along than on actual repairs. I am about halfway through my H pile, maybe a little more (slug reason #2). I'm okay with that progress. The pile was bigger than I thought it would be. Like, almost fifteen feet tall if I stacked it all up, lol.

 

Languages: Duo has been going really well. I think I only missed two or three days all challenge. I'm starting to get a bit of Esperanto in the practices that is actually challenging, my French is getting a refresh, and I remember more Spanish than I thought I did. I also did try to do a French evaluation test. The test had both written and oral comprehension sections. I completed the written comprehension with the highest possible score (woo!). However, I couldn't get the oral comprehension test to work properly. The questions are video-based, and they must be high-def or something. They were taking upwards of 10 minutes each to load, with 38 questions, and a timer running as soon as the video was fully loaded so you can't just walk away while you're waiting. I gave up on it after a few failed attempts.

 

Unfortunate observation: the challenge goals that I did well at involve me sitting sluglike in front of a computer or just sitting generally. Those that I didn't do well at involve getting up and moving around. I'm not proud of this, but at least I'm aware of it now.

 

 

EDIT: I have just checked the challenge dates and it turns out that this week is actually part of the challenge and I'm not just three days behind like usual. So this summary above is accurate, but the challenge endures!

 

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

[juliebarkley]

Okay, real challenge finish time now. Since I did a wordier sum-up, this will just indicate pass/fail. If fail, I repeat the challenge next time, with tweaks if needed. If pass, level up to the next stage and a little closer to annual goal!

 

STR: Pass on researching progressions, fail on getting back in the exercise habit and regular planking. However, I did hit my plank time target, so there's that.

DEX: Fail on consistent handstand practice. However, progress was made.

CON: Pass at putting on the watch, fail at hitting the target.

INT:  Change of plan on the booklists, but they are a big pass and a thing of beauty. Pass on reading regularly as well. It's not every day, but nearly and often for more than the time, so I call that good.

WIS: The prayer is not really a pass/fail, but I'm going to go with fail as I've not been doing the prep which helps remind me. However, the lectures are a pass.

CHA: Pass on contacting people and building relationships.

Occupation: Pass on every element of this section. That weekly live check-in helps a lot, as does setting concrete weekly goals.

Arts/Skills: Pass on the book sorting. Fail on the repair sewing. Did a little, then petered out. Got a lot of embroidery done, though.

Languages: Big pass here.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Conclusion: A mixed bag, but there was no element, even the failed ones, that didn't improve at least a little.

 

Onwards to: https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/115871-juliebarkley-is-slogging-on/