On-thread Low Stakes Accountability MMG

[bostonimproper]

I’m about 10% through The Lying Life of Adults. I’m a big fan on Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend series, so generally pretty excited for this one too.

Completed the book yesterday. This week my goals are to:
1. Skim my What to Expect: The First Year book, including adding stickies to the important pages, and
2. Finish Portfolios of the Poor, which is about banking for the global poor and has been sitting half read on my Kobo since like February.

Then next week I might return to some more literary works.

[Lemur]

Dec 5-Dec 12 - I will get back under 170lbs (I'm currently around 172-174lb) by eating around 1800-2000 calories and hitting my daily steps goal. I've been having a hard time getting back on track since I went off the rails in November. Let this be the week that starts back my long-term streak of healthy eating.

Also no YouTube for a week. I need to do one of these digital detoxes. My attention span is starting to suck again. Edit: Actually a further thought this morning - I went ahead and just removed all the apps on my phone that steal my attention for more than a minute a day (even Chrome!). I don't have social medias but I play a lot of games...and frequently get caught in the YouTube Shorts algorithm. Last night I started reading Cal Newport's Book "Digital Minimalism" which I picked up a few weeks ago at the library and did not start reading until today and its very relevant for my cause right now. Also lowered calorie target to 1600. This should put me at a 7000 total caloric deficit for a week when I hit that target everyday (2lbs worth). If I'm going to be hungry anyway, might as well up the challenge slightly. Its usually these initial tough weeks that allow myself to reset and then moderate things better going forward.

1. Success. I am at 167.9lbs. Back on track here.
2. Success. Finished reading Digital Minimalism and now I'm thinking through my own personal technology rules of engagement. The concepts I learned in this book are going to last much longer than a week.

Dec 13 - Dec 19

1.) One suggestion was to find something to craft / fix every week. We have one piece of furniture with a bum leg so I'll fix that. That should be easy though. Next week I'll have to think of something else.
2.) Put a dent in my Ecology book. Book is too large to finish for one week but I do want to get about halfway in.
3.) Declutter my closet - anything that has just been sitting there needs to be put up for sale on Ebay, given away, or donated.

[mooretrees]

Dec 13-19:

Make an appointment for orientation for work gym and read 2-4 chapters of TPP.

Previous goal was partially met, read the chapters but did not deal with plums.

[Quadalupe]

Before December 19th I will not drink anything besides water and tea, except for Thursday 15th where I can attend a beer-tasting and taste 4 beers (which isn't the same as drinking 4 beers!) Furthermore, I will not eat any sugary stuff besides Monday and Thursday

Went pretty well, slight transgressions but all in all I snacked less than normal. So let's do it again!

Before December 26th I will not drink anything besides water and tea except Wednesday 21st and Saturday 24th. The same for sugary stuff and fat stuff.

I'll also finish 3 days of the course I am following.

[disk_poet]

Goal for Dec 13 to 19

[x] Take vitamin D every day to improve handling winter darkness
[x] Drink 2L every day

Worked out well.

Goal for Dec 20 to 27

[ ] Put two more things on eBay
[ ] Get started back on strength training for back and do stretches

[ertyu]

Congrats!

I kind of bummed off this last week. I still didn't have a zero week; I quit my job and submitted 2 applications for new jobs. "Don't turn on the heat" experiment still going strong; 11C/52F inside, 40-ish outside (mid single digits C, it was quite sunny today). Rookie temperatures, so far since the season started I've switched on the AC 2 or 3 times of 15-30 min to turn the air over.

Dec 20-27 I want to finish the huge pile of work I've let pile up at work, continue with the heating experiment, and journal about why i always end up burnt out from full time work even when the work isn't objectively that bad. C'mon self, people do this full time job thing for decades, and they don't even have half the vacation you do

[7Wannabe5]

Dec. 13-20 - Craft holiday exchange gift using stuff that I already have on hand.-

I will probably knit up some colorful dish towels. I might do some sort of humorous take on the discovery of previously unknown grandfather through results of DNA on ancestry.com.

I knitted the pieces for a colorful cell phone/wallet sling, but I can't find my tapestry needle or conceive (yet!)of attractive alternate means by which to complete the project without purchasing a tapestry needle.

I did some internet research in attempt to find a photograph of previously unknown maternal grandfather. I couldn't find a photo, but I did discover the state supreme court proceedings concerning his highly contentious divorce from a woman-not-my-grandmother in the 1940s. My mother self-describes as having spirit animal of Dragon, and two of my sisters are lawyers, so will be interesting tid-bit to share over the holidays.

DEC 20-26- Revamp my WOG-like spreadsheet of values/projects and happiness/fulfillment tracking.

[Lemur]

Dec 13 - Dec 19

1.) One suggestion was to find something to craft / fix every week. We have one piece of furniture with a bum leg so I'll fix that. That should be easy though. Next week I'll have to think of something else.
2.) Put a dent in my Ecology book. Book is too large to finish for one week but I do want to get about halfway in.
3.) Declutter my closet - anything that has just been sitting there needs to be put up for sale on Ebay, given away, or donated.

Success - I did fix that piece of furniture (just bum leg that had to be re-screwed ... the hole was too wide though so I had to just drill another hole). I'll have to find the next thing to fix/craft.

Fail - I think I read only 2-3 pages. On the other hand - I'm now into reading "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" by David Graeber and David Wengrow which is far more entertaining in my opinion and I don't have to force myself to read it.. As Lin Yutang would say

Anyone who reads a book with a sense of obligation does not understand the art of reading.

Last one...kind of success/fail - Donated a few items but there is some other stuff sitting in there I'm still contemplating what to do with.

[bostonimproper]

This week my goals are to:
1. Skim my What to Expect: The First Year book, including adding stickies to the important pages, and
2. Finish Portfolios of the Poor, which is about banking for the global poor and has been sitting half read on my Kobo since like February.

Fell off the wagon a bit due to wrapping things up at work. Now that that’s done, I’ll finish up the What to Expect book this weekend. And then for next week’s goal… I’m not sure if I want to read Portfolios of the Poor. Like, it’s fine, but it’s dry and I’m not sure how much more I’m going to get out of it. I kind of want to read Edward Chancellor’s Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation instead. Or, I don’t know, literally anything else. In either case. My goal for next week will be to finish a book, even though I haven’t figured out which.

[disk_poet]

Goal for Dec 20 to 27

[x] Put two more things on eBay
[-] Get started back on strength training for back and do stretches

Strength training didn't happen but I am renovating a flat so there was exercise. Put two more things on eBay. Sold one.

Goal for Dec 26 to Jan 1st

[ ] Finish painting and cleaning in new flat
[ ] Create spreadsheet to track work/ere hours for next year

[bostonimproper]

Now that that’s done, I’ll finish up the What to Expect book this weekend… My goal for next week will be to finish a book, even though I haven’t figured out which.

Completed both of these early. I ended up reading Raising Them: Our Adventures in Gender Creative Parenting. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it basically means raising a kid without gender norms and using gender neutral pronouns for them until they are old enough to choose their own gender identity. It’s something my husband wants to do with our kids, so I borrowed the book from them hoping to get some more insight.

Whether you agree with the practice or not, I would generally not recommend the book. The author talks a lot about her own anxiety and experience justifying her parenting choice to others. She doesn’t really talk about her kid’s actual experience or those of other families parenting this way. Also when she wrote the book, her kid was still in preschool, so not particularly helpful in outlining how this upbringing affected her kid’s sense of self and identity long-term. There’s also pretty much nothing concrete on the science of child development (psychological or neurological) to inform the what, why, or how of the parenting choices she makes.

Goal for Dec 28 - Jan 2

Finish either Portfolios of the Poor or City Power, both of which I have sitting half-finished.

[disk_poet]

Goal for Dec 26 to Jan 1st

[x] Finish painting and cleaning in new flat
[-] Create spreadsheet to track work/ere hours for next year

Not a zero week but didn't finish the spreadsheet. Want to do it this week since this will be the first week I need it for tracking.

Goal for Jan 2nd to 9th

[ ] Create spreadsheet to track work/ere hours for next year

[ertyu]

I kind of fell through on doing this, but for 2023 I asked myself, "what's the one thing that, if you do it, all else becomes easier or unnecessary" and came up with, "until june 30th (when my job contract ends), only spend money at the produce store." It's obvious how it all lines up: if I only spend money at the produce store, I'll need to cook for myself from scratch, i'll draw down on my pantry on time for leaving, and i'll save quite well which will be good given how i did not renew my contract at this job and i seem to be self-sabotaging my job application/interview process something fierce and I can use the peace of mind that some extra savings would afford.

Jan 1-3 I did well, Jan 4-5 there were baked goods The produce store also sells fruit and I seem to have increased my fruit consumption to make up for the sugar im not getting elsewhere. So, for the next week, I recommit to my resolution to only spend money at the produce store -- which appears in essence to be a resolution about my sugar addiction.

[disk_poet]

Not a zero week but didn't finish the spreadsheet. Want to do it this week since this will be the first week I need it for tracking.

Goal for Jan 2nd to 9th

[x] Create spreadsheet to track work/ere hours for next year

@ertyu I like that idea of framing it this way. Instead of setting explicit goals you are instead changing the constraints to force outcomes you want. I might steal it in the future.

On my end I created a spreadsheet that basically tracks the hours worked per week and days taken off per week and compares them to a running total. My plan for the year is to work 1000 hours and take 50 days + weekends off. It comes down to roughly 6 hours of paid work per day for a 4-day work week. In theory that should pay for my expenses + retirement savings with some buffer. I think the hardest things for me will be setting boundaries and feeling ok with that. Clients already asked if I can work extra days here and there. I am unsure how to really do this. It seems to be the hardest thing in semiERE to find that balance.

Since I am moving to a new flat this week I don't think I will be able to accomplish a lot of extra things. My goal will be to go running 3 times this week even if it's just for 15-20 minutes.

Goal for Jan 10nd to 17th

[ ] Go running 3 times

[bostonimproper]

Goal for Dec 28 - Jan 2

Finish either Portfolios of the Poor or City Power, both of which I have sitting half-finished.

I ended up reading neither of these. I also DNF’d a parenting book my friend recommended but I wasn’t really jiving with (Hunt, Gather, Parent). Instead I filled up on a few short, quick reads:

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion. This was the first time I ever read Didion. This probably makes me sound like a provincial techie, but she reminded me a lot of Kara Swisher. Which isn’t terribly surprising, apparently Swisher loves Didion’s writing. Observant and acerbic, with a certain Reagan-era California sensibility. Wry but not funny, though I don’t think she’s trying to be. I liked her essay on Martha Stewart as the iconic proto-influencer quite a bit.

Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan. Again, first time I’ve read this author. As a contemporary Asian surrealist writer, my surface level first thought was, “Oh this reminds me a lot of Murakami.” Apparently Mo Yan “stole” the Nobel Prize in Literature out from under Murakami in 2012- the literary world thought the odds were in Murakami’s favor that year to win- so clearly I’m not the only one making the connection. Mo Yan’s writing is a lot more political, though, in ways that I’m kind of stunned he was able to get past the censors in China. This was a short story collection; I think I’d be interested in diving into some of his novels next.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates is a beautiful, lyrical, powerful writer. His work will undoubtedly stand the test of time and be read by students fifty or a hundred years from now to understand what it’s like to live as a black man in America today. This series of essays he writes to his son just gutted me. The intergenerational trauma of racism and how it fuels the *absolute requirement* imposed on Coates to strive for black excellence; the wide-eyed critique of American race relations, not just on historical terms, but on the standards we “set” for ourselves in our own country’s mythos. Just so, so good.

That puts my book count for 2023 up to 3. My goal for the rest of January is to finish 2 more. Since my goal for 2023 as a whole is 20 books, this should give me a strong head start.

[ertyu]

Thank you for writing up your impressions about these, @bi. Have read neither but they sound like solid works I'd like to check out.

[disk_poet]

Goal for Jan 10nd to 17th

[ ] Go running 3 times

I did not complete my goal.

Things never pan out as you plan them... My cat got sick on Wednesday and I decided to put her down instead of weeks of force feeding and a high chance of a lung collapse. It were very traumatic days. Losing my best friend and companion of 12 years. I'm still trying to understand my grieving and feelings for this little animal. It's hitting me hard.

I'm currently trying to decide if I should continue this thread (which will probably be very pet-loss related things over the next few weeks) or take a break. I guess if I had to put a goal down this week it would be to not fall apart....

@bi: Thanks for the book reviews. I don't feel like sitting down and reading atm because my thoughts and heart is racing but the books sound interesting and I'd like to give them a read once I feel a bit calmer.

[UrbanHomesteader]

@disk_poet, I am truly sorry for your loss. I have been there before.