Questions to ask

Q: What does it take to stay organized?
A: Lifestyle change

Q: How to make my time really count?
A: Set time checks. Choose to be purposeful.
Decisions to make. Time needed to follow through.

Safety net

Or better named as the Starter kit, consists of: Version control, Unit testing and Project automation. It is an infrastructure in software development to address the needs, namely Design Time with Freedom to experiment, Ability to backtrack to a stable state, Reproduce any work product as of any time, Ability to demonstrate progress, for an exploratory environment.

Version control stores every version of every file you work with. Whether you're writing source code, articles, songs, poetry, version control acts as a giant Undo button for your work.
Newer distributed version control systems such as Git or Mercurial are well suited to support private experimentation.

Unit testing provides you with a fine-grained set of regression tests. You can use unit test results to compare alternatives, and you can use them as a solid indication of progress. In any endeavor, you need objective feedback to measure progress.

Automation ties it all together and ensures that the trivial mechanics are taken care of in a reliable, repeatable manner.

With the above 3 steps, you can learn efficiently and safely: explore even if you're not sure where you're headed, invent and apply what you've learned.

Expensive Lessons Learnt

What was I doing?!!!
May 2010
Sometimes when signing up for credit card, it comes in a bundle of many things, i.e. for HSBC, it came with a Ready Credit account which required something like an annual fee?
Some misconception - paid $70 (part of the annual fee) but, in the midst of it, slipped my mind to retrieve back the payment cos on the same day a few minutes after I paid, after their staff's explanation of this account type's "loan shark" nature, I terminated the account.

Heart comes in sizes too...

Ever bought tickets for ticketed events and then at the last minute, realized that it would have to be forfeited or transferred to others due to circumstances i.e. double date, or being quarantined?

The study of people comes in handy at this transferring juncture.
Some entrust ticket to others yet expecting full refund... and
some generously give up with no strings attached.

One's helpfulness may be another's poison.
Middleman sometimes do get hands burnt... but even bigger is the burn scarred at the heart.

Over-Committing

Take a look at what you are saying Yes to, i.e. in terms of Time, Finances, etc.

If you say Yes to something, and then resent the time it takes to follow through, then it probably is something you should not have agreed to in the first place... except, if the things are really crucially important to you and loved ones, and that they would match your long term goal(s).

Prioritize. 24/7 on a budget - which stuff done are towards your true intentions, that can truly improve life quality, versus gradification?

And if pressurized to commit when you know you should say No, begin by saying a half No, i.e. "I really can't today, but I may be able to sometime in the future." Then work towards a definitive NO.

Out-of-Focus

Bokeh is the term used to explain the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur in photography, and is usually seen in good quality macro shots, in the areas that lay outside the depth of field.

Seeing beyond the present.

What happens without goals?

"In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely
loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become
enslaved by it."

— Robert Heinlein

Consider what you're doing. In what way is that advancing you toward your goal, versus daily trivia?

A study done at the Dominican University showed that three factors contribute to helping you accomplish significantly more toward achieving your goals:

• Written goals
• Public commitment
• Accountability

Days and weeks may seem suddenly evaporated without clear purposes; personal or career-wise.

The Incredibles

Marathon runners hit a "wall" of fatigue halfway through the race. If, however, they can grit their teeth and smash through that wall, they can find resources of energy to carry them for the whole grueling 26miles/42.2km distance.

In life, i.e. learning Japanese, is like running a mental marathon; bumping up against not one wall, but an endless succession of walls! You get through Hiragana to find Katagana waiting for you... After which Kanji try to tongue twist you and Grammar Forms tower atop formidably.

Be bold and courageous!
He who faces the giants and bowl them over are the Incredibles.

What do I want?

Temporal happiness cannot solve the state of being, i.e. confused & easily vexed, which is affected by success or failure of goal achievements, especially if one is just flowing along.

I can't Go On, I'll Go On

"Nothing really belongs to us but time, which even he
who has nothing else."

- Baltasar Gracian, Spanish Jesuit philosopher

You must go on.

Procastinate

How to move away from such murky situation:

"We accept the verdict of the past until the need for change
cries out loudly enough to force upon us
a choice between the comforts of further inertia and
the irksomeness of action."

-Learned Hand, 20th century American jurist

With laying-out-of-options & sheer WILLPOWER.

Fantasies

When can fantasies become realities?

Ridiculous coincidences in dramas make reality more precious.

Till reality is purposefully lived out, having like-minded flock together to enjoy fantasies, is simply infatuating in meaningless happiness.

Everytime on my birthday...

I always remember this was and still is somewhat I psycho myself - to stay relevant/abreast with times...


"Today is my eighteenth birthday! How old! and yet how far am I from being what I should be. I shall from this day take the firm resolution to study with renewed assiduity, to keep my attention always well fixed on whatever I am about, and to strive to become every day less trifling and more fit for what, if Heaven wills it, I'm some day to be."

- Queen Victoria's journals

How do you know what to venture and what things are the things you want to be?
...the paradox of choice.