Weekly Summary # 35

An excellent and productive week! I've learned a new way to manage my to-do lists that has been boosting my productivity considerably, enough so that I virtually eliminated all my items even beyond my goals. I have a list for just about everything -- short actions, long actions, physical actions, computer actions, and so on -- that I consult regularly to see what I could possibly do next, and the most important list is my Short-term Aims and Goals list, which documents what I want to get accomplished today, tomorrow, this week, and sometimes even next week. My error is that I've been detailing my daily goals too exhaustively, so I've often been taking on assignments that take an entire day to complete, by which then I'm tired and feel finished with my day, lacking motivation to check any of my other lists. This week I've trimmed down my daily goals to the bare essentials I want to tackle in a day, leaving the rest to intuition to decide where to go next in my goals and other activities, and I've found it's surprisingly effective in increasing my motivation to keep constantly attacking my lists, rather than completing my daily goals and feeling done for the day.

Even better this week is that I've been feeling more and more content about life on a consistent basis, and feeling a stronger person. I've been maintaining my introspection habit consistently and writing down good things that have happened recently, and I find that my consistent mood keeps getting brighter and brighter. It's certainly allowing me to make calmer and more productive choices, and be an overall better person, so I consider this significant progress in the emotional realm. I'll absolutely keep up these practices on a routine basis, lest I falter.

The list:

1.) Memorize the various muscle groups: Done. I'm not sure how effective my learning has been so far, but already I seem to have a firmer understanding on which exercises I should be doing to tone my body and how to plan the exercise orders. I learned the various groups surprisingly fast, though I learned quickly only to focus on groups relevant to my exercise concerns, as some of the muscle broken down very intricately have lots of difficult technical names to remember, which I don't need to know since exercise can't target them that specifically. I'll check my written notes to test and refresh my knowledge throughout this week.

2.) Read to page 150 in Schulz and Peanuts: Totally forgot! I made a particular error for the first time too: Apparently I only listed this goal on my blog and didn't document it on my list of goals that I consult daily, so I lost awareness that I made this goal. Oh well, still plenty of time to read the book.

3.) Read to page 200 in Crash Proof: Didn't make it in time before it was due at the library, but I've rerequested it. I'm fairly convinced on the root of the U.S.' economic problems now and am not involved in arguing for them, so I think when I get the book back I'll just skip right to its recommendations for protecting savings. That's all I want to learn.

4.) Submit a request for a chocolate-based book (more informative, not recipes): Submitted requests for The Science of Chocolate and The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao, and am anxiously waiting for them. I want to learn as much about chocolate as I can.

5.) Follow more chocolate blogs: Well, somewhat. They seem to be surprisingly scarce, as I only found one or two new blogs to add to my reader that I hadn't heard of before. I guess any others that exist I'll just have to stumble upon accidentally.

6.) Write an article for Modern Paleo: Done. I'll link to it when it publishes. I plan on kinda retiring from contributing to this blog except for my chocolate reviews, and I add emphasis on "kinda." Writing an article for them on top of the commitments I already take on with this blog is very stressful and pressing, so I'd rather refrain from writing another article there unless the ambition strikes me. I just think my time can be spent in more valuable pursuits.

7.) Look up book on coding: This is related to my new year's resolution to redesign my blog, and I skipped out on it because I keep running into value conflicts. On one hand I see benefit on obtaining such knowledge, but I keep refraining from pursuing it because I favor better other values in my hierarchy, such as chocolate and learning more about the culinary field, so I'm afraid to take on such an educational endeavor since I think it'll eat up too much of my time. I still plan on redesigning something, so I've just got to rethink things in a way that will still allow me to concentrate on the highest parts of my value system.

8.) Take walks that last approximately 45 minutes until daily goals are completed: Done. As mentioned earlier this week, I've been having a problem taking too long of walks lately, so I thought to remedy the problem by forcing myself to go home after 45 minutes elapsed. It worked wonderfully, as I felt no discomfort or disappointment in cutting off my walks in such a way. I'll integrate this into my system of self-improvement habits to ensure that its benefit remains constant.

I've also applied similar limits to checking e-mail and blog stats. Without restrictions I found myself doing it too frequently, but when I applied the rule of only checking once in the morning and then not again until after my daily goals that I was helped overall in my productivity, so they are yet more habits I need to keep up with.

9.) Examine Google Mail: Done. I had been contemplating a switch, and I think I've decided to do it since Gmail is much more fluid and fast, and thus more efficient.

* * * * *

I attacked my to-do lists so thoroughly that there seems to be little else to do now, and I have little goals I can think of. Keeping in line with my last weekly summary, my main interests now are computer coding (web design, really), chocolate, exercise, and getting my financial house in order. I can do something with the web design, but I'm waiting for books on chocolate, exercise, and finances, so one goal is a-go while the others are on hold out of my power. That's alright, as there's always plenty of time to think and plan how my time could be spent more productively. Best of all, the pared down to-do lists make me feel more comfortable with the prospect of reading more, which is what I've been wanting to do more while at the same time thoroughly neglecting.

So, for now, here are my rough plans, which will likely change by the time you see this next week:

1.) Look up web resources on web design: Of all things, I want to reconstruct that hideous header I have on top of my page. Change that and I think I'll be content with the simplicity of my blog.

2.) Continue studying muscle groups: I'd say all I would need to do is check my list of muscle names and test myself to see if I can correctly locate them on my body. Again, the groups were surprisingly easy to learn and memorize, making me feel silly for procrastinating for so long. If you workout then I suggest doing the same, as it brings more awareness as to what improvements you need to make.

3.) Convert to Gmail and redirect newsletters and like to there; add signature: This will be a bother, but should take only an hour or so, nonetheless. If you're one to communicate with me by e-mail, then be sure to ask for my new address.

4.) Ask my credit union how I can convert my money to other currencies: This is mainly what I want to do to protect my savings from the probable oncoming economic collapse. The web turned out to be a bogus resource since most all of it deals with how to calculate currency exchange rates. I want to know how to literally do it, and mainly how to incorporate it into my banking rather than holding it as paper.

5.) Create productivity lists for work: This helped me immensely at my last job, and I think I should incorporate this back into my current job too, as well as utilizing a stopwatch to time how efficiently I do a task. Given the amount of wetness as my job, however, I fear my lists won't fare well without plastic coverings, but I'll learn how to make do until I get them.

6.) Read to page 100 in Schulz and Peanuts: The reason why I've reduced my goal here from 150 pages is because now I'm not so sure I want to continue reading it. I came to value Disney productions by gaining an admiration of Walt Disney himself through a stellar biography, so I thought I could come to admire the Peanuts comics by reading Charles Schulz's biography. While I see value in his comics, I don't think he was great as a person, and so am considering quitting the book.

That's it for now. Given my improving sense of life I'd like to write a happy post later this week on how I plan on enjoying my life in the short-term, and utilizing my smaller to-do lists advantageously to give me a more comfortable amount of time to indulge in some learning. Life is worth living and thinking about, alright.