Change

Thanks for the suggestions! I feel like out of the list, I fail to do multiple things such as: Sleep - I only get ~ 4-6 hours every evening, and even less during exam periods. I'll have to do some restructuring of my life in order to tackle this problem. Exercise - The exercise I have is walking around my campus (~5000 - 10000 steps per day). I am going to start a strength training routine at my University gym soon (Starting strength) so I'll see if that changes how I respond to long periods of studying. Rest between studying - I usually stretch my body and walk around a bit, but I don't think I've actually did running before in my break time. I think that's a good idea, since I feel like my head unwinds when I go for a jog. That's a really good idea! I'll implement your suggestions for the next week and I'll let you know how it goes.

Hey guys! So, what's been happening last week was that I fell in my total productivity for the last week by 2 pomodoros, and I can see the reason why. I've been chatting with some friends even more during the evening, so that I would stop working after ~4 to 5 pm. I've actually put a stop to that and I've told my friends that I will only be able to chat later in the evening. I'll see how that works out for me. I also have a problem with falling asleep really late, and what I am planning on is that I will go to sleep as soon as I'm home from university (~10-11pm). What I tend to do is that I end up wasting my time browsing the internet and whatnot when I'm home, and I also tend to overeat during that time, since I come home hungry as hell. I'll instead sleep early and wake early. I actually tried it last night, (sleeping at 12am), but I ended up sleeping for 8 hours instead of the 6 hours I'm used to and woke up at my usual waking hours. I'll see if I can work on waking up early to get some things, like meditation and scheduling, before I'm at university.

I find that when I study for a long period of time, I feel a sort of squeezing pain around my chest/neck and a slight soreness around my forehead. I was wondering what may be causing it, and if other people feel it too? I thought that it may have to do with anxiety and breathing problems, and I have tried some relaxing and breathing exercises, but the feeling doesn't go away until I just relax for an extended period of time. Any thoughts on this? Anyone with a good exercise to get rid of the aching pain after studying/working for a period of time? Thanks!

I am a university undergraduate student who's trying to use his own time more efficiently so that I can reach my goals of becoming a medical student while also following my hobbies, such as making art. For the past few years, I've been working on becoming more happy with myself, following Eckhart, Gary van Warmerdam, and Don Miguel's works in order to be less judgmental about who I am. I have improved a ton since just three years ago, when I used to stress about every single day and every single interaction with people, and I would criticize myself for the smallest things. I'm still on the journey to become happier about myself, and I have learned much about who I am and what I want to do in the past year. I've found Leo Gura when I started to search up on how to become more proficient, since I was becoming more happy with myself, but I was still very lazy at what I was doing. I believe his video on self discipline was the first one I've watched, and I was hooked! I started to watch more of his stuff, and I decided that I wanted to integrate what he was teaching into how I lived. And, as I believe he said, it would be better if I focused on achieving my dreams and becoming successful more than becoming an enlightened person at this point of my life, so I decided to devote more of my time into becoming a great learner in my undergraduate studies in microbiology while also pursuing my hobby of drawing (which I delayed on doing since I was in grade 6, when I wanted to become an artist. See where the anxiety and self loathing comes from? ). Anyways, I've been switching between different time management systems (GTD, Evernote with GTD, Todoist, etc) until I found that using pen and paper works best with me. I might talk about how my system developed over the course of 7 months, but I'll leave that to the next journal entry, since my introduction is getting pretty long. I have been working with a time management journal system for a time now, and I have decided to compile the number of pomodoros and other data (time stretches of 25 minutes) I have been doing on excel to see an overview of how productive I have been doing. Needless to say, it became clear that I need to work on becoming better at being accountable with the time I spend, so I am writing a weekly journal on my time management and weekly use of time. The picture of the journal system I've been using is attached in the post. (You'll have to forgive me for the really bad handwriting. It's just something I've been struggling with for a while now ) The part of interest for me is the timeline part of the journal, where I write down how many pomodoros I've been working on. The black thick vertical line is to indicate when i switch between doing other tasks/resting and working. Thin black vertical lines are the number of pomodoros. Black horizontal lines are when I have other obligations that needs to be done (waking up, going to class, travel time, etc) and red horizontal lines are when I am doing non-productive things (video watching, twitter, video games, etc). To summarize, the pomodoros are meant to depict the time I've spent purely focused on tasks that I set out to do for that day, not including classes and lab times. They represent time that I spent being productive. Red lines, however, are stretches of time I've spent not being productive, such as watching youtube videos, watching video game streams, browsing twitter, etcetera. I've added the pictures of the compiled excel data for the last two weeks. #pomodoro : how many pomodoros I've done for that day First pomodoro : when I started my first pomodoro Last pomodoro : when I finished my last pomodoro Longest rest stretch : the longest stretch of time when I rested/procrastinated (no data for last week as I've just started recording it starting last Friday) Significant events : what I spent most of my pomodoros on. One period mean that it is the same as the last day's significant event As you can see, my productivity isn't exactly stellar. There are things I have to work on, especially with the stretches of rest that I justify to myself as being important, but I don't get back to studying again until way later on. I believe that it has to do with how I procrastinate, and it follows the same pattern I've been living in in the past, where I would end up procrastinating for hours on end, watching meaningless videos and reading meaningless feeds of information so that I can forget about the tasks that I have to do. It has to do with avoiding pain, fear, and anxiety. For example, you can see that I worked tons on Saturday because I was studying for a midterm that was on Monday (MT Study), and I was on a roll that day. However, on Sunday, I completely stopped and procrastinated because I felt that 1. I was ready for the midterm (I wasn't - I still had a few chapters that I had to study) and 2. I could delay studying until later on (I ended up panic studying at night. I didn't even record the number of pomodoros because I was just rushing through the notes as fast as possible without following the necessary pomodoro 25 minute work/5 minuter rest). Avoidance and self-justification is something I will have to work on. The method I'm employing to start working even after procrastinating is to realize I'm procrastinating, observe the fear and anxieties I may have and to simply accept it and extend my love towards it (Understanding that it is simply a thought process designed to protect me from 'imaginary harms' and there is no need to hate that part of myself). Then I start a 5 minute timer, and at the end of the five minutes I have to start working. The problem is also in maybe how I actually feel physical pain when I work for a stretch of time. I believe it has to do with my breathing patterns or my anxiety, but I haven't been able to solve how to fix it. I might make a post on the productivity section of the forum in order to figure out what other people do with the squeezing-like pain in the neck/chest, and if it is normal for other people too. I don't feel it when I am working on my art, however I feel it when I am studying my course notes. Anyways, I'll update this journal every Saturday to keep myself accountable with what I do, and I might even drop some posts between the week in order to write about some significant epiphanies or changes I have made in my productivity or my history working with different time management systems to write out how my productivity system has evolved over the past years so I can better understand myself and how I work. Please don't hesitate to drop any posts on tips and comments you may have for me! I'm always extremely grateful for every comment given!

I am only making a very short journal entry as I have a midterm coming up tomorrow. Here is an observation of myself for today. Log of February 9th, 2016 Observation There was a 3~ hour gap from 9 pm to 1 am, where the majority of the time was used in watching youtube videos. The method of using a 5 minute timer to stop the avoidance loop occurred to him around 1 am, when he stopped procrastinating and avoiding his tasks of the evening. Interpretation of the observation Thought process "He deserves to watch these videos because he will never get to watch them later" He deserves to watch these videos If he doesn't watch the videos he will feel bad If he watches the video, he will be wasting time Conclusion The thought process looks like an indecision thought flow. Possible solutions Accept the thoughts and emotions that occur with full gratitude Assign an hour period when I can watch whatever I wish to in the evening. Ensure that the session is TIMED and that I start a 5 minute countdown after the hour rest session to start my tasks again Whenever I have an urge during the day, remind myself that I will be able to watch the videos later on in the day Thought Flowchart of the avoidance loop (Tentative)

INTRODUCTION What is the purpose of this journal? This is a journal of the observations of a 21 year old of his own thoughts and insights. The purpose of this is for him to understand and fix the behaviors that run contrary to what is necessary to his own goals and commitments. What is the overall goal of the writer? Self Mastery - The ability to understand and adapt oneself in accordance to the needs of any scenario in order to reach the goals he wishes to achieve. Emotional Mastery - Understanding the emotional aspect of the mind: the source of the emotion, the biological/sensation facets of emotion, and the necessary response to the emotions that may arise that will allow him to act in accordance to what he deems beneficial. Intellectual Mastery - Understanding the automatic and deliberate thought processes of the mind: the trigger of the thoughts, the flow chart of the thoughts from its initiation to end, and how its interacts with the emotional aspect - the emotional response to the thoughts and the reciprocal thought response to the emotion. These concepts are the ones that the writer is actively striving towards with the assumption that, through Self Mastery, one is able to mold one's behaviors in order to achieve whatever immediate or life-long goals he has. Why is he writing in third person? The journal is written in third person in order to distance the writer from the observations he witnesses of himself in order to maintain an objective view of his actions and thought processes. This rule may be modified or ignored in certain situations if deemed necessary later on. Log of February 8th, 2016 This week's focus: Avoidance Observation There was a gap between 5:48 pm and 10:44 pm in his work. [No "pomodoros" (25 minute units of work) recorded between this time] Interpretation of the Observation Initiation He had a scheduled meeting at 6 pm to meet with friends in order to study together However, the meeting was not mandatory, and he had started to think that it was not necessary to go to the meeting. Thought process There were two thoughts that arose: The thought that he could use the time to study by himself, which he thought might be a better use of his time The thought that he could not miss the meeting to study with his friends Behavior The result was that it led to avoidance behavior - internet browsing Rapidly jumping from tab to tabs (20+ tabs open) Distraction from thinking This led to heavy breathing, anxiety, and distress, which led to even more avoidance behavior Resolution The process was resolved at around 10:10 pm when he had to drive home from university. [Forced event] Thought flow chart (tentative) Initial thoughts: "I should do this" vs "I shouldn't do this" --> indecision on what to do --> ( Judge "He is making a mistake in not doing X" --> Victim "I am making a mistake in not doing X" + Judge "He is making a mistake thinking about doing X" --> Victim "I am making a mistake thinking about doing X" ) --> Emotional response Fear, frustration by the belittling of the self --> Biological response --> pain and heavier breathing in anxiety --> Avoidance behavior to quell the thought process + emotional response --> ( Judge "He is wasting his time, therefore he is an irresponsible and bad person" --> Victim "I am an irresponsible person ) ***This process will be shown by an actual drawing of a flowchart in the next log to avoid confusion*** Insights and Possible solutions Observing the biological response (fear and pain) and using it as a reminder to stop thinking and breathe and regain stability. Using mindfulness to observe and record the thought process when it occurs. Acceptance of the emotion that occurs fully and with gratitude. Action(s) to be taken Start a timer for 5 minutes at realization that he is going through an avoidance thought loop. When the timer ends, he is to get back to doing the work that he needs to do. This method will be used next day to see what results it brings. Question(s) unresolved How to resolve the indecision that led to the avoidance thought loop. --- Thank you for reading the journal. I would be extremely grateful to receive any advice that you may have for me, so shoot away! Also, I am planning on streamlining the journal structure for next time. It took me a whole hour and a half to write this one, and I'm planning on writing one at least every second evening. I may even simply draw out the thought process I have gone through to attach in the post, then write out possible solutions to the problems that arises from them, and then write the results of the plan I've implemented. Before I finish writing, I want to thank Leo Gura for creating this forum. I would have never imagined myself writing a journal to keep track of my actions, and I feel that the thought-keeping process will help boost me out of the mire I have been in for the past few months in terms of my productivity. I would also like to thank everyone in this amazing community. The helpful and friendly camaraderie I see in this forum is something I haven't seen in any other self-improvement/actualization forums, which is a nice change from the cynicism and snarkiness present in a lot of the online self-help communities. You guys simply are the best. Godspeed to all of you, and good luck in your own journey towards self-mastery!