Ramblings
--Well, it is now August 18. I began the below post on July 29, but never got around to completing it. I'll post it anyway. I'm tired of it sitting around as an uposted entry.--
I can't believe it is nearly the end of July. This month has flashed by quickly. I feel like I have gotten some key projects accomplished in July. At least I have made progress on some projects. I'm going to list out my monthly goals that I assembled at the beginning of the month, and some commentary on how I feel I've pursued each goal. Unlike the previous couple of months, I did not priortize my July goals. I never got around to it. Not exactly proactive. I do think that prioritizing helped me in previous months, and I will prioritize my August goals. Here are my July goals:
1. Vocabulary: This is a persistent goal of mine from month to month. I never seem to spend as much time learning and practicing words as I would like to. I have experimented with different methods of learning new words, and practicing their uses. These methods have included having Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day e-mailed to me, recording words/definitions/example sentences on my tape recorder and listening to the playback, writing poetry with new vocabulary and underining new words that I come across in my reading, then writing the word/sentence/definition down in my journal. I've even written some vocabulary down in my blog. However, I just don't feel like I spend enough time each day on new words. It is hard for me to remember things anyway, especially vocabulary that I am not used to using. I would like to get into the habit of using new words in speaking and writing. The blog is an excellent medium for the writing portion. In July I created three sheets for my planner, one for verbs, one for adjectives and one for nouns. I thought that seperating new words by their type of speech may help me to more easily remember them within their context. This could also provide a quick reference to look at these words on a daily basis, even though I didn't do this regularly in July. In fact, I didn't add too many words to any of the lists in July. I can try to improve upon this in August. I can also sign up for the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day again.
Regular Sleep/Track: I did not do well on this goal in July. I paid for it by being tired often and late for work on numerous occasions. I tracked my sleep a few nights, but did not do it regularly. My purpose for tracking my sleep is to be able to evaluate my energy level on a daily basis with respect to how I slept the night before. It would also allow me to see a pattern, much like I look for patterns in my monetary spending by tracking my outflows. I took an Ambian pill a couple of nights in July, including last night, to ensure that I would not be laying awake in bed at night. However, I probably did not go to bed before 10:30 on more than 4 occasions the whole month. That is a wild guess, but I'm sure it is fairly accurate. I should be going to bed between 10:30 and 11:00 each night, so that I can get to sleep by 11:30, and therefore sleep 8 hours prior to getting up at about 7:30. These should be my target times, but I don't achieve them often. I need to cut out naps, especially naps in the middle of the workday. This is a waste of time that could otherwise be spent on something constructive. Staying up a little bit later on the weekend should be o.k., but I should be careful to not oversleep. In other words, if I am up until 2:00 on a friday night, I should not sleep past 10:00 on saturday. Too often, I will sleep until noon, or nap extensively during the day. This only throws off any regular pattern that I may be trying to establish.
I can't believe it is nearly the end of July. This month has flashed by quickly. I feel like I have gotten some key projects accomplished in July. At least I have made progress on some projects. I'm going to list out my monthly goals that I assembled at the beginning of the month, and some commentary on how I feel I've pursued each goal. Unlike the previous couple of months, I did not priortize my July goals. I never got around to it. Not exactly proactive. I do think that prioritizing helped me in previous months, and I will prioritize my August goals. Here are my July goals:
1. Vocabulary: This is a persistent goal of mine from month to month. I never seem to spend as much time learning and practicing words as I would like to. I have experimented with different methods of learning new words, and practicing their uses. These methods have included having Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day e-mailed to me, recording words/definitions/example sentences on my tape recorder and listening to the playback, writing poetry with new vocabulary and underining new words that I come across in my reading, then writing the word/sentence/definition down in my journal. I've even written some vocabulary down in my blog. However, I just don't feel like I spend enough time each day on new words. It is hard for me to remember things anyway, especially vocabulary that I am not used to using. I would like to get into the habit of using new words in speaking and writing. The blog is an excellent medium for the writing portion. In July I created three sheets for my planner, one for verbs, one for adjectives and one for nouns. I thought that seperating new words by their type of speech may help me to more easily remember them within their context. This could also provide a quick reference to look at these words on a daily basis, even though I didn't do this regularly in July. In fact, I didn't add too many words to any of the lists in July. I can try to improve upon this in August. I can also sign up for the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day again.
Regular Sleep/Track: I did not do well on this goal in July. I paid for it by being tired often and late for work on numerous occasions. I tracked my sleep a few nights, but did not do it regularly. My purpose for tracking my sleep is to be able to evaluate my energy level on a daily basis with respect to how I slept the night before. It would also allow me to see a pattern, much like I look for patterns in my monetary spending by tracking my outflows. I took an Ambian pill a couple of nights in July, including last night, to ensure that I would not be laying awake in bed at night. However, I probably did not go to bed before 10:30 on more than 4 occasions the whole month. That is a wild guess, but I'm sure it is fairly accurate. I should be going to bed between 10:30 and 11:00 each night, so that I can get to sleep by 11:30, and therefore sleep 8 hours prior to getting up at about 7:30. These should be my target times, but I don't achieve them often. I need to cut out naps, especially naps in the middle of the workday. This is a waste of time that could otherwise be spent on something constructive. Staying up a little bit later on the weekend should be o.k., but I should be careful to not oversleep. In other words, if I am up until 2:00 on a friday night, I should not sleep past 10:00 on saturday. Too often, I will sleep until noon, or nap extensively during the day. This only throws off any regular pattern that I may be trying to establish.
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