Study Diary 1/1/24

Hello! This is a personal diary, but I am posting it here to keep myself accountable. You can read my study entries or skip over them, but I want to take responsibility for my learning! I hope you feel inspired too! ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

:･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･.:

I woke up today at 8am which is later than I would've liked, but having stayed up for the new year I think it was a reasonable time to begin my day. I reorganised my room yesterday so now the bookshelf isn't blocking the radiator and my room is warm for once in my life. After waking up, I immediately drank a glass of water and took a walk in my garden. It was a brisk and windy morning, but the rising sun was beautiful and there weren't many clouds in the blue sky.

Back home I ate some leftover cake for breakfast and a sandwich, and then proceeded to spend a good 2 hours playing star stable and animal jam. These games have me in a chokehold. Then I spent another hour doing chores and talking with friends. This meant the clock struck 11am before I started my work for the day.

I first made a plan of action on paper, this being a to-do list with everything I want to get done before school starts. Then I ordered this list by urgency and started with the most urgent. At least, that's what I'd like to say I did. The truth is, I started making excuses for myself and started pushing it back. Whether it was reading a book, scrolling social media or wandering around the house aimlessly, I found every possible reason on earth not to open my work. Everytime I sat back at my computer, my hands magically typed games into my searchbar and I'd start grinding them. I know it's an addiction when I don't even enjoy playing them much. Or maybe it's just a bad case of procastination.

This loop of avoidance and guilt continued well into 4pm, I'm embarassed to say, up to a point where I sat sadly staring at my bookshelf and wondering where my new year's resolutions went. I find it hard to trust myself if I betray any commitment I make for myself. Feeling very guilty, I got a timer up and timed myself for 10 minutes while playing a game. Then, not letting myself think, I reset the timer the second it ran out and opened my work. To my surprise, I spent the whole 10 minutes focused on my work, and I even enjoyed it more than the game.

I didn't let myself work past the timer because I knew I'd be in for a long run and I wanted to avoid burnout after not working for so many days. Instead, I kept the cycle going for a few more rounds and gradually started decreasing the minutes on playtime, and increasing the minutes on worktime. This method worked wonders, and I got a very large amount done in the run-up to 8pm.

Now, normally I'd like to continue working past 8pm, but I've unfortunately caught a cold right on New Year's eve, and it's quite tiring to work when sick. Furthermore, I'd like to build a healthy sleep schedule in this new year. So 8pm should be relaxing time, and 9pm should be sleep time.

Thank you for reading my diary, I hope it inspires you that it's never too late to start doing that thing you're procastinating on! Just take baby steps if you're coming out of a long streak of no work, and I promise you that you can make it! (ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)♡

I hope to write another entry tomorrow!