January Progress Report

Welcome to January 2024's progress report! It's time to look at this month's progress and see how I did.

This all started because I slowly realized that I wasn't living my life to its full potential and wanted more out of it. In each progress report, I plan on outlining my goals for the future and what steps I've taken to improve my life.

To preface this month's report, the largest hinderance that I've noted in my process is that I spend way too much time analyzing my mistakes. I recognize that my perfectionism has inhibited my ability to grow and move forward (as seen by my publishing this 20 days behind schedule). It's only the first month and I've already shamefully fallen this far behind. Some improvements are already on the docket for next month's report.

Before this month of new beginnings, I found myself simply sitting around, waiting to see what life would float to my doorstep each day. I had done some informal practice on LeetCode to hone my programming skills, but this was generally a sporadic event. Some time last year I began the LeetCode 75 study plan and kept with it for about a month before gradually forgetting about it. There was just no system in place to keep myself accountable and I dreaded getting around to it after the initial excitement wore off.

Starting this January, I reenrolled in classes at university studying mechanical engineering and have been feeling confident and present in every single course thus far. It feels super refreshing to wake up everyday and drive to campus, getting into the routine of leaving the house regularly and having the sunlight hit my face. I've finally begun my dream of publishing a blog, and perhaps most importantly, I've identified and am focusing my efforts on the single most important factor in my transformation: consistency. I'm shifting my focus to long term growth instead of relying on short term satisfaction to keep me working.

My dream is to be bursting with energy every morning by getting quality, consistent sleep. I will arise each day with a purpose in mind and a goal to accomplish. I will overcome my chronic procrastination and I will exercise daily and work on my physical health. There will be no reliance on pure will power as I will have established systems to fall back on.

I actually began this endeavor by stumbling upon a platform called Ghost while I was reading about Docker on boot.dev. This experience led me to do some more research where I wound up feeling more and more drawn to the idea of writing on Ghost. This seemingly stems from my experiences some years ago when I was daydreaming in class pondering what I was to be doing with my life. I got hung up on the idea of blogging and the freedom that it presents with its endless possibilities. There is certainly a strong appeal there. However I never followed through on the idea until now, all thanks to a random mention of a random platform on a random course.

In case anybody was wondering what all it took to set up a blog like this, it was honestly a super simple process and just about anybody could do it. Everything has been fairly elementary and straightforward thus far. Once the domain and hosting are dealt with you're immediately up and publishing content. I purchased the domain for $9.73 on porkbun.com and highly recommend the service. It was simple, quick and easy.

The hosting on the other hand cost $108 for the year through ghost.org utilizing their starter plan. It's not the cheapest option on the market but it was definitely an easy one to begin with. They handle all of the setup and allow one to begin writing immediately. I figured this would save me the hassle of having to upgrade or change services later as I scaled up.

For the very affordable price of $117.73 for the first year, I'm quite happy to have been able to begin this journey so smoothly. Additionally I plan on keeping all of my blog related work contained to an old MacBook Air that was handed down to me for simplicity's sake. It may not be very powerful but it's enough to get me started.

My main progress for this month has been laying out the guidelines and envisioning my framework for the future. Only some broad plans and goals have been formulated, especially as it pertains to this website. I've begun laying out the systems in my mind but there is still much work to be done implementing them.

My main idea is simply compartmentalizing life into smaller chunks allowing myself to track my progress in different areas effectively. This idea was conceived as I was working with Docker, an app that allows one to containerize environments for development. It provided the ability to have simple, clean and reproducible environments for each individual project as opposed to the mess I previously held on my desktop with projects spanning the entirety of the last decade.

The most rewarding aspect of improving has got to be that feeling of achievement each time we accomplish a task. This is made evident in the manner that video games provide such addictive content. Because progress is immediate and gratification is instant, we respond positively to the chemical surge that keeps us progressing through the game.

Real life works differently in that results may take months or even years to realize even with constant progress each day. Muscles don't pop up in a day, often requiring months of progress to see real change. By implementing this compartmentalization, I hope to track my achievements closely and keep myself on track for greatness.

Towards this end, I've begun journaling every single day using Capacities. Back before 2020, I had a streak of around 700 days using Microsoft's OneNote to write daily entries about my thoughts and feelings but I stopped eventually and never got back into it. Capacities is a refreshing take that feels much smoother and more natural to use. I'm expanding it to serve as a space for organizing the separate systems in my life.

Not only can I use it as my daily journal but I've also used it to track my media consumption and keep track of how much time I'm spending interacting with different friends/family. That's how I'm able to tell you that I watched all six seasons of Breaking Bad and the first six Star Wars movies all in one month. The entire idea behind my usage of Capacities is to streamline my systems and habits to make wafting through life easier and more productive. Some of the categories I've separated my life into currently include: school, the blog, my social life and my health.

Another ambition of mine is to begin reading books again. I've realized now that I haven't cracked open a book and read more than a full page of text in probably half a decade. It's time to start powering through books cover to cover once more. Books remain one of humanity's most powerful inventions, allowing for the dissemination of thought across time and space.

In this vane, I've set up an old tablet on my desk solely for reading books. I'm hoping that by setting the tablet up in my space with such easy access I will be compelled to pick it up and read from it regularly but I will report back next month with the results.

The most important thing that I remind myself each day is to remain consistent and persistent. I'm proud of myself for my consistency with classes thus far. Even though there have been days where I've woken up and told myself that it wouldn't hurt to skip a certain class or two, I've forced myself to show up anyways. If I allow myself to skip even a single class, then there's nothing stopping me from skipping the next one after that.

My end goal with this blog is really to keep myself accountable. I will be recanting my journey here to force myself to keep moving forward. If I ever find myself slipping, I will have a log to reflect upon.

One of my goals for February is to manage my doomscrolling in a healthier manner. I've noticed an uptick in the amount of time I've spent clicking through to the next YouTube short or Instagram reel and how easy it is to let time slip away. I never understood doomscrolling until I experienced it and it's scary how fast a whole hour can tick away. I will definitely try to limit this by only spending time reading or watching content with prior intent. No more curious or aimless scrolling out of boredom.

I've also found myself living a very sedentary lifestyle up until classes started up. My goal for next month isn't to go to the gym and work out but simply to begin to become more active by doing push ups and crunches every single day. With just a few push ups and crunches each day, I can begin building inroads on creating healthier habits for my body. I've found that I wasn't even able to do one full pull up but I've gotten started by doing negatives instead.

No matter what happens, I must simply remember that my life only got to this state because my younger self always held these simple words in his mind: "There's always tomorrow." That mindset is what allowed my life to drift astray and get stuck in this ditch. It was always easier to put off work until the next day.

But no more. We can only live in the present and we only grow by doing things in the present. With many hours wasted behind me, I'm beginning my journey here and now to become my ideal me. Moving into February, my primary objective is to be more intentional with my time. Too often, I've let the hours slip away without seizing control and focusing on what truly matters. And above all else, I must prevent regression. Progress hinges on forward momentum; as long as I continue moving forward, there will be no space to backslide.

In the coming month, I plan to make further adjustments to my environment. Cleaning up my room and establishing a dedicated workspace separate from the leisure of my computer and games will foster a more conducive environment for productivity and focus.

By prioritizing consistency, accountability, and intentional time management, I'm committed to realizing my potential and becoming my ideal self. I thank you for making it to the end of what is truly a wall of text and invite you to please join me on the path to a better, brighter future!