Day #347 - Day Before Holiday

So that's what I did after I came back to my office and settled all the work I could.
I just took a break, and played games with my colleagues for the chillah sessions~

Today's Small Wins:

• Presentation turned out well
• Good chillah session
• Nice dinner to celebrate my mum's birthday
• Settled some Bintan matters

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't manage to pack my bag early for tml
• Sleeping late

Things I'm Grateful For Today:

• Another birthday for my mum
• A gathering for my family and Dearest
• Being able to go for a holiday~

Day #346 - Coping With Work Stress

It's been a rather stressful week so far at work.
But I feel that I'm still managing it okay.
Not great, but okay.

Goal of the Week:

• Complete Section 3 of Udemy App Dev Course [2/10]
• Didn't do anything today

Goals of the Day:

• Plan activities for Bintan trip over the weekend
• Not Achieved
• Get out of office on time
• Not Achieved
• Push myself at work
• Achieved

Wanted to be prepared for tml's update.

So I did OT until 9pm to prepare for it.

Not the ideal way at work, but at least I felt more assured.

Today's Small Wins:

• Push myself to handle the different work tasks

Today's Small Losses:

• Did OT
• Slept late
• Didn't meditate

Things I'm Grateful For Today:

• Support from Dearest on understanding my work load
• My ability to work OT and not feel too terrible about it

Day #345 - Making Decisions

Decision-making seemed to be quite relevant in my recent work setting.

Goal of the Week:

• Complete Section 3 of Udemy App Dev Course [2/10]
• Didn't do anything today

Today's Small Wins:

• Meditated for 5 minutes
• Helped (somewhat) Dearest's bro with his statistics questions
• Did my best to push for things to happen at work

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't manage to have much time to myself today

Things I'm Grateful For Today:

• Colleagues that I can joke with
• A leader with a vision
• Dearest's protection of my time

Day #344 - Leading With Risk

Not that I know this guy, but the day's happening reminded me something about leadership.
Being a leader, whether is it leading a team, or yourself, would require a certain level of risk.
Leading my life, requires risk as well.

Goal of the Week:

• Complete Section 3 of Udemy App Dev Course
• Completed 2/10 lessons

Goals of the Day:

• Household chores
• Not Achieved
• 1 lesson of Mobile App Development
• Achieved
• Meditate and Sleep by 11.30pm
• Achieved

Today's Small Wins:

• Ran in the morning with Dearest
• Able to churn out and filter relevant data at work in an efficient manner
• Able to help Dearest's brother with some stats question
• 2 lessons (simple ones) on Mobile App Development
• Meditated for 5 min and will sleep by 11.30pm

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't manage to do household chores today
• Clothes to be ironed is piling up; this would have to be priority tml for chores
• Should have done something for work earlier

Things I'm Grateful For Today:

• Time to learn

Day #343 - Everyday Is An Opportunity For Myself

Everyday I wake up, I shall tell myself.

"Today's an opportunity to better myself.
Grab it. And use it to the fullest."

Goal of the Week:

• Complete Section 3 of Udemy App Dev Course
• Didn't do anything do this today

Goals of the Day:

• "Eat the frog" at my office work
• Achieved
• Seek help early
• Not Achieved
• Good habits (sleep by 11.30pm and meditate for 10min)
• Not Achieved
• Complete my household chores (iron clothes)
• Not Achieved
• Complete 1 lecture on Section 3 of Udemy App Dev Course
• Not Achieved

It seems like I didn't manage to fulfill a lot of my goals for the day.

The evening was spent cooking dinner (45min), and then around 2 hours of editing my blog post that I pushed out yesterday.

Downloaded the previous image editing software, and figure out how to add in an extra page on the blog for the calculator.

Today's Small Wins:

• Make things happened at work
• Worked on my blog for 2 hours
• Dinner dishes (luncheon meat + egg) turned out well

Today's Small Losses:

• Slightly lethargic at work
• Really need to rest early and try to get un-interrupted sleep by just sleeping with my own blanket and drinking honey
• Didn't meditate
• Didn't sleep early
• Didn't do household chores

Things I'm Grateful For Today

• Dearest's massage at the end of the day
• The finance that I have to enable me to pay for hosting my blog
• This house that I have that gives me time and space to pursue my goals

Day #342 - Having Friends In Life

And I love chocolate chips, on my cookie.

Goals of the Day:

• Have a good morning exercise session with Dearest and her friends
• Achieved
• Be productive in my personal work
• Not Achieved
• Meditate
• Not Achieved

Goal of the Week:

• Publish 1 post on a savings account calculator
• Achieved

Quite a hot and tiring, but fun session playing Captain's ball with Dearest's friends.
Both of us were quite spent after the morning~

Today's Small Wins:

• Still managed to cook a good dinner with Dearest
• Put in hard work for personal goals by reviewing the remainder of the savings accounts
• Pushed out a blog post

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't sleep early and meditate

Things I'm Grateful For Today:

• Having a group of friends to have regular exercise/interaction session
• Dearest's contribution to the household chores
• Time to do my personal work

Day #341 - Being Productive

Didn't manage to set goals at the start of the day because I spent the morning for training.
Got busy with housework once I got home, and forgot about the day's goal's setting.

Today's Small Wins:

• Woke up and went for ARR training at Bishan even though the MRT wasn't up and I reached late
• Cleared up the bomb shelter for the installation of racks and tidied up the extra floor/wall tiles
• Had a nice evening attending Dearest's cousin 21st birthday and playing giant jenga

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't realize that the training this morning was at 7.30am instead of 8am
• Didn't meditate

Things I'm Grateful For Today:

• Dearest's reminder to not eat too much chocolate ice cream in case my throat acts up again
• A bunch of army dudes to train my physical abilities with
• Dearest willingness to cook for me

Day #340 - Strive To Be Of Value

Perhaps success it's not something to strive for, but something that results as a consequence of striving to be of value.

Goals of the Day:

• Quality time with my parents' side
• Achieved
• List out the must-dos for work today
• Achieved
• Allocate time for pre-lunch mini-workout
• Achieved

A good evening of early celebration of my dad's birthday.

Though the meal was quite expensive, but I think it was quite a good gathering.

Today's Small Wins:

• Good celebration for my dad's birthday, and a good family gathering
• Meditated for 10 minutes in the morning

Today's Small Losses:

• Felt quite tired at work (perhaps due to the previous late nights)
• Didn't ask about the price before confirming the dishes

Things I'm Grateful for Today:

• Being able to celebrate my dad's birthday together as a family
• The safety of my dad as a taxi driver
• Dearest for wanting to join the celebration even though she was very tired and drain from her work and her period

Day #339 - Something Out There For Me

I have stopped wishing for some time now.
But I need to work more at the 'doing' part.

Goals of the Day:

• Have a good couple evening tonight!
• Achieved (through cooking and chatting)
• Conscious to be focused and efficient at work
• Achieved
• Gather information about 2 savings account today and update the existing calculators for them
• Achieved

It was another great evening cooking with Dearest again =)

We chatted a while during dinner, and decided not to watch a movie like we planned so that we could have more me time tonight.

We also spent some time talking about, and deciding on whether should we take "Y" or not, and we decided to go for it in the end. 

Today's Small Wins:

• Getting out of the house on time even though we woke up late
• Did personal work today on 2 savings accounts!
• Quality time with Dearest cooking
• Cooked a nice dish of vegetables today =)

Today's Small Losses:

• Forgot my groceries back in office
• Forgot to make a call to the restaurant tomorrow to add one more person
• Didn't meditate

Things I'm Grateful for Today:

• Dearest's willingness to risk her health for us
• Both of us able to go to work and come home together
• Dearest's intention to allow me time to do my personal work

Day #338 - Practising Discipline

Building back my discipline to follow through my thoughts with actions.

I have decided to give myself a "Goal of the Week" today, and make sure that everyday I will work towards this Goal.

Goal of the Week:

• Publish 1 post on a savings account calculator
• Updated information on 3 savings accounts

Goals of the Day:

• Gather information on 2 additional savings accounts
• Achieved
• Use the previous Google sheet to create calculator for 3 savings account
• Achieved (updated the previous calculators)
• Continue the trend of meditation
• Not Achieved

Quite a normal day at work.

Back at home, Dearest encouraged me to push myself.

And so I did. =)

Today's Small Wins:

• Did personal work for a few hours (when you're really passionate about something, time flies)
• Cooked with Dearest! (lovely dinner tonight =)
• Resisted playing the Coke machine game to prevent myself from getting another sugar-loaded drink 

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't practise good habits (late night + didn't meditate)
• Forgot about the mini-crisis back at my parents place until my mum called to update me on it
• Lazed around a bit after dinner

Things I'm Grateful for Today:

• A rather smooth cooking session with Dearest
• A lovely wife who pushes me
• The safety of my parents and sister

Day #337 - Get Shit Done

Today, I will get my shit done.

Goals of the Day:

• Be focused at work, and work on priority tasks
• Achieved
• Consolidate the information on savings account from 3 banks
• Achieved for 1 savings account
• Meditate
• Achieved

Got quite tired after finishing up my ironing.

But decided that I should spend some time to consolidate the information on the savings account I was reading up yesterday just to keep it fresh.

I also discovered that people (not a lot, but still) have been requesting access to an online calculator that I have created on my blog using Google sheets.

It feels that what I have created (or consolidated) is useful to some people.

And this makes me feel good, and motivated me a bit more.

Today's Small Wins:

• Discovering that some people see value in what I create
• Meditated for 10 min
• Exercised in the early morning with Dearest
• Consolidated the information about 1 savings account

Today's Small Losses:

• Had to reject accompanying my parents tml to reserve more energy for myself
• Didn't sleep on time 
• Wasn't that engaged in the interaction with Dearest at home because I was feeling rather zoned out towards the end of the night

Three Things I'm Grateful For Today:

• For the value that people see in my creation
• For being able to lend Dearest's my Ezlink card when she forgot her so that she don't feel more frustrated
• For Dearest's tolerance towards my dis-engaged mood when I'm tired

Day #336 - An Important Week

Starting the week is easy.
I plan out things to do, work out the time schedule for them.

Finishing the week is hard.
I have tasks and chores undone, and I'm wondering where I could have done better.

This week, I will start strong, and end strong.

Goals of the Day:

• Care for my parents
• Achieved
• Work out the office work tasks for this week, prioritize, and delegate
• Achieved 50%
• Personal Work on reviews of banks' savings accounts (review on past worksheet, and update on at least 1 bank)
• Achieved

Went back to my parents' place because something weird happened in the family.

Hope that everything's fine from now.

Did some personal work, but only read up; haven't note it down in my notes yet.

Today's Small Wins:

• Went back to show care and concern for my parents
• Did planning for work tasks
• Did personal work of reviewing my past data and 1 bank

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't meditate
• Lazed around when I got home

Three Things I'm Grateful For Today:

• The health of my parents
• The care that Dearest showed me when I'm find darkness uncomfortable
• The financial ability to take a grab home when I want to without much worries

Day #335 - Planning My Week Ahead

Plans are secondary.
Planning is primary.

Today's Small Wins:

• Exercised in the early morning with Dearest
• Helped out with my in-laws open house
• Had fun trying to cook rosti
• Planned my week ahead

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't have the energy to do any personal work
• Rosti failed. Terribly. haha..

Day #334 - Pushing Myself To My Limits

First time joining the training for Armour Road Relay ever since I ORDed.
I was really nearing my limits for the 970m time trial.
3:30min; I can do better.

Today's Small Wins:

• Managed to wake up and went for the time trial
• Did household chores with Dearest
• Cooked myself a lunch with 3 different dishes

Today's Small Losses:

• Forgot to set goals in the morning
• Didn't review schedule for the day

Day #333 - Time Flies, It's Friday Again.

Time lost is never recovered.
I have to keep in mind this.

Goals of the Day:

• Dedicate morning to elearning at work
• Achieved
• Have a good badminton session
• Achieved
• Quality time with friends
• Not Achieved

Didn't manage to set up a successful mahjong session in time with my friends.

But we learn, as we navigate to find a new regular place for mahjong.

Today's Small Wins:

• Finished the e-learning before going to badminton
• Had a good badminton session and dinner with badminton friends

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't manage to spend time with my close friends due to planning issues
• Didn't meditate

Day #332 - Starting

A desire to start.

Goals of the Day:

• Collect my suits from dry-cleaning
• Achieved
• Cook a simple meal for myself
• Not Achieved (decided to grab a quick dinner outside)
• Start on the actionable items for my goals
• Not Achieved 

Decided to spend time on planning for an upcoming trip because it's more urgent.

Today's Small Wins:

• Put in time for trip planning (ferry tickets bought, hotel to be confirmed tomorrow)
• Meditated for 10 minutes
• Did housework (hang and fold clothes)
• Let Wugui out of the tank

Today's Small Losses:

• Released a hotel booking to rebook in another way to get rebates, but the dates got snatched away within 1 min =(
• Slept late because of the above; tried to find other ways

Day #331 - Forced

Lesson of the day.
Let things come more naturally =)

Goals of the Day:

• Prioritize tasks and work on them
• Achieved
• Prepare for cooking
• Achieved
• Exercise
• Not Achieved (ate dinner late)
• At least 30 min of personal work
• Achieved

When nature takes its course, that's when everything will come smoothly. =)

Today's Small Wins:

• List out 3 huge goals for my personal work, and also 1 actionable item to be done this week for each goal
• Good session of cooking with Dearest by being her assistant

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't practise good habits
• Not engaged with work in the morning

Day #330 - 1 Month of Bliss

Happy 1 Month to Dearest & Me =)

Goals of the Day:

• Plan out what to cook for dinner
• Not Achieved (Ate out in the end)
• Be focus at work to do the prioritized tasks
• Achieved
• Brainstorm and be explicit with what I want to work towards
• 10% Achieved

Was preoccupied with checking my tax filing, and trying to log in to my wordpress account. 

It's been too long since I have went into my blog administration to see how it's going.

I'm a bit surprised to see quite a number of views, though I'm not sure who came to visit.

It feels exciting thinking about going back to researching on what I'm interested in.

Today's Small Wins:

• Work-focused
• Nice evening spent with Dearest
• Small celebration of 1 month!

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't meditate

Day #329 - Freedom Needs Discipline

Today, I shall practise discipline.

Goals of the Day:

• Household chore (according to the joint schedule with Dearest)
• Achieved
• Be focused and efficient at work; Don't be distracted by internet or non-prioritised tasks
• Achieved
• Plan out my personal daily schedule
• Achieved
• Plan out the events for the week
• Achieved

Today's Small Wins:

• Followed the schedule quite closely today
• Exercised (9:40m for 2km)
• Planned my personal work timings
• Reviewed my schedule for the week

Today's Small Losses:

• Slept late
• Didn't meditate

Day #328 - Motivation is a Spark, Discipline is a Commitment

Motivation has its ups and downs.
But Discipline is a persistent expression of inner self.
I strive for both.

Goals of the Day:

• Come out with the daily schedule that incorporates the household chores, my joint lifestyle with Dearest, and my personal time planning
• Achieved (for joint)
• Have a good Qing Ming praying session with both sides of the family
• Achieved
• Have sufficient rest before the week starts
• Achieved

Today's Small Wins:

• Created the schedule on Google Calendar and shared with Dearest to co-manage it
• Had a good Qing Ming praying session with both sides of the family
• Cooked a nice dinner with Dearest
• Had a long chat over dinner with Dearest

Today's Small Losses:

• Sleeping later than 11pm
• Didn't meditate
• Haven't planned my personal time for leisure and work

Day #327 - Unleash My Potential

Someone said something similar to me before.
And it prompted me to show what I can do.

Goals of the Day:

• Household chores
• Achieved
• Discuss with Dearest about schedule
• Achieved
• Meditate
• Not Achieved
• Quality time with relatives
• Achieved

Today's Small Wins:

• Allocated time for and did household chores
• Discussed with Dearest on a schedule for our household chores and lifestyle
• Got a nice massage from Dearest (with scent and music) >_<
• Resisted the opportunity to interact with family and cousins after dinner because I felt that discussing on the schedule with Dearest back at home is more important

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't meditate
• Spent too much free time in the day nuaing

Day #326 - Rich or Poor Habits

My personal habits have results that will show in due time.
And I would want to work towards a rich life.

Today's Small Wins:

• Exercised (basketball + badminton)
• Did household chores

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't meditate
• Didn't manage to discuss about schedule with Dearest

Day #325 - Is It Worth Working Without Passion?

I chanced upon this video when I was browsing Facebook today.
And it got me thinking,
Would I regret staying?

I wonder.

Goals of the Day:

• Have a good evening with Dearest and my parents
• Achieved
• Focus on prioritized work tasks
• Not Achieved
• Work on my passions
• Not Achieved

Today's Small Wins:

• Quality time with Dearest and my parents together
• Good discussion with Dearest to improve our lives by saying that we need to come up with a schedule

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't meditate
• Slept late

Day #324 - Mid-Week Reflection

It will be a tough journey trying to get something on the side started.
But I know it will get me to the things I love to do.
So, I will just have to get started, and hang on.

Goals of the Day:

• Efficient cooking
• Not Achieved (Didn't cook)
• Get started on my next financial blog content
• Not Achieved
• Practise good habits (wake, meditate, sleep)
• Achieved

Got more interested in trying out Google AppSheet to log down the family expenses.

Seems to be working out in a very fundamental way.

Today's Small Wins:

• Meditated for 10min
• Tried out Google AppSheet
• Sleeping on time

Today's Small Losses:

• Didn't exercise
• Didn't get started on my next financial blog content

Day #323 - Making Life Meaningful

If life is easy, then it's not meaningful.
So I want to keep my life challenging, in order to lead a meaningful life.

Goals of the Day:

• Continue to build the habit of daily planning for work tasks
• Achieved
• Start the habit of planning for the week for personal schedule
• Achieved
• Meditation
• Achieved
• Cooking Dinner
• Achieved (oven-cooked cajun, vegetables, and rice)

It's quite tiring to rush to cook breakfast and dinner.

But it's also quite satisfying =)

Took up quite a bit of energy and time.

Don't think I can do this everyday. haha..

Today's Small Wins:

• Planned and followed the plan for work tasks of the day
• Did some planning for the week; not completed though. Have to figure out where to allocate timeslot to do my personal work
• Meditated for 10 min
• Managed to complete something with Dearest!

Today's Small Losses:

• Slept late
• Too much energy loss from cooking

Day #322 - Planning Is Everything

The plans that come from planning can be, and will be changed, according to circumstances.
But the action of planning, should always be done.

Goals of the Day:

• Do planning for the rest of the week
• Not Achieved
• Plan for work tasks in office and execute
• Achieved
• Pay Credit Card bills
• Achieved
• Exercise
• Achieved

Taking time out to plan is still an issue of procrastination for me.

Today's Small Wins:

• Ran 2km in 9:30min
• Settled my credit card bills
• Planned office work tasks and followed them
• Meditated for 10 min

Today's Small Losses:

• Slept late
• Didn't do planning for the rest of the week

Day #321 - Approaching the End of Break

It's quite a fruitful day for Dearest and me =)

Today's Small Wins:

• Worked out the financial plan for us
• Quality time with Dearest over Dinner and Shopping

Today's Small Losses:

• Had a conflict in schedule between both families