Early this year, I had a resolution about being more consistent on the things I want to do. May it be the hobbies or skills I want to learn, I wanted to allot time to have some sense of progress. I had a list of the things I wanted to learn and work on, even though I was determined to make it work, I also didn't want to be hard on myself. If I needed rest, then I'd gladly allow myself to rest.
One of the things that help me stay on track is this app, Forest - Stay focused, be present, by setting time in doing my tasks I'm able to focus on what's on my plate. When I accomplished that task given the time I have set, I gain energy (which can be used to purchase different kind of plants or plant trees in real forests).
An overview of the 1st month of 2021
This was my busiest month so far, most of my tasks during this month involved working on my research. I was so satisfied to see the many plants that I was able to grow in my virtual forest. I was also able to plant a tree on a real forest l using the energy I earned from this month. This overview shows my progress for the whole month, it shows a chunk of my hard work.
When all the hurdles of my graduate school life came to end, I finally got time to work on the things I have always wanted to try. I've been doing so since the late months of 2020 but I felt guilty of doing so, I thought that I had far more important things to do. But to be honest, I enjoyed so much of my time doing those things, like learning a language, I started learning French and Korean. It was very difficult to learn two different languages at the same time, but it was my sort of break from the work I was doing.
The list of things I wanted to learn about
- Learn a language. I got overboard with this because like I said, I started learning two languages simultaneously. I allotted 25 minutes a day in learning either French or Korean, sometimes, both.
- Learn about cryptocurrency and trading. When I understood how the blockchain technology works, I was amazed of the many possible applications that this technology can innovate. I wanted to learn the fundamentals and understand the basics of trading, with this, I allotted a few hours of my week reading blogs and whitepapers, sometimes, even published journal articles.
- Learn about the research fields I've been interested in the past. Of course, I still wanted to do research when I finished working on my data analysis and manuscript. Learning is a continuous process. This comprised a huge chunk of hours of my week, this was some kind of the sky is the limit, I can study almost anything.
I was hopeful that I'll be able to pull this off for a very long time, I kept tabs, organized my schedule in a very detailed way, and felt all the determination and motivation that I needed. I was wrong. I wanted to believe that consistency is the key to everything. But I had the wrong picture of what consistency looks like...of what progress looks like.
Progress is not Linear.
Just by looking at the number of hours I spent in learning languages, from October of last year to May of this year, there were highs and lows. Sometimes, when I feel like I've been doing less, when my efforts become scarce, I feel like giving up on that thing. Maybe, it's not really for me. But there was this great wisdom I've read from a post. If I would read a page a day, in one year I'd be able to read 365 pages. I will just have to accept that some days will be dull and progress will be hard to notice. My strongest weapon is not giving up because of a little 'low' in the way.
Whenever I'd find myself giving up on something, I let myself rest, and pick up where I left off. Everyday, I remind myself to check on the image of consistency that my mind has a picture of. I want to remind myself the reality of consistency and not be blinded with the illusion of it. With that, I just know, I can embrace my own timeline with so much joy and gratefulness.
Photos and illustration on this post are of my own.