Shifting Gears

Post Reply New Topic

I've been learning on a deadline non-stop since 2012. I've finally reached a point where I ran out of funding to keep the pace up, and have a kid on the way, so I need to look for work fast. My school quarter ends in a week, after that, I'll need to look for full-time work.

There are bodies of knowledge I need to improve on for better job prospects, and I can only guess at what they are. I need to clean my place again and work towards a better system of managing the clutter. Theres an entire home-economics situation that I need to manage, after awhile I've noticed there are several repeated tasks (like getting ready for school/work). If I can anticipate what I need to walk out of the house with every day, I can arrange to have them ready to go the night before.

Then there's the skills I want to branch into: I'm interested in being able to use math to model the things I that happen. But I'm also interested in finding ways to measure and monitor what is actually happening. These goals are too-open ended; I need to get more specific if I want to actually progress.

Quite a ramble there, but the short version of the story is that I'm shifting gears; there is a major life change on the horizon and I have to transition into it.

I think there is not much else to do than congratulate you on your offspring and wait for actual problems to arise, with which we maybe can help you.
Also: Everything will be fine, albeit different than you expect, but you can do this!
Your transition phase will take place the moment new things start happening, and it will be new and stressful and uncomfortable, but after a while, you'll get better at it.

We all dislike change, but in hindsight, my fear of change has done more bad than good, and I wish I had changed a few things on my own accord, rather than let them happen, paralized.

Yea, I just had to say it out loud instead of thinking about what I'll do. It's a change for the better, but I need to manage my time and space better to adapt to it, getting on here and talking about it helps.

The mornings are going to be the worst, they're usually chaotic because I like to sleep in (I am not a morning person). At night, I have a hard time getting to sleep, I get excited for some reason. When I wake up, my first thought is to stay asleep (first impulse actually). I'm also very disorganized, I have to double or triple check that I'm leaving the place with everything I need.

I noticed years ago that I could streamline my food supply process and not only eat healthy, but at less overall effort on my part. It's been a success and I still use it to ensure I have access to food when I leave the house.
Since I generally wear the same types of clothes, I think I can pack for every day of the week and whittle down on what I need to think about in the morning. If I can extend the idea to everything I need when I walk out of the house, I'll have my best foot forward for this.

I still need to work on my exercise habits, it's hard keeping track of exercise, so it's hard to anticipate what I need to work on next to stay rounded. I'm not going to walk around with a clipboard just so I can keep track of what I do either, the payoff wouldn't be worth the headache.

I'm attempting to manage my time:

0600 is a reasonable wakeup:
• I use the SADs light to stimulate daylight
• I have my tupperware-blend and a glass of water at the bedside, eating will help me wake up

0900 is a reasonable time to leave the house:
• I have a change of clothes arranged in shopping bags, I won't have to hunt for them
• I know what items I should leave the house with
• I can always go running if I can't think of anything

Day-to-day is hard to anticipate, but I have an idea of what I should generally be doing. I should spend 8 hours away from the house and look for work or at least find productive activity.

When I get back, I can spend time on personal projects and hobbies; but by 8 or so, I should get ready to sleep and by 9 or 10, I should be asleep.

This approach should give my day more structure and mitigate some of my flaws.

Vitamin b12 supplements also help in the morning.

The tupperware blend covers all of that. I've had a good diet plan for years now. I can tell you all about it if you're interested.

Can't say I'm meeting any of these targets, but at least I'm on a more regular schedule. I'm making another improvement and stopping cigarette use, I have a reliable e-cigarette model. The trick is to never buy cigarettes no matter how bent out of shape I feel. This was a new years resolution, so I'm a few days into it.

I have a much better handle on the clutter, getting up and going in the morning is less of a hassle. But after some cleaning and jogging, I'm at a loss for what to do next. So I'm coming up with activities I can fall back on:
•Differential Equations on Khan Academy
•AVR programming tutorials
•Video monitoring projects on raspberry pi
•DDC breakout board for work
Some of these lack specificity, especially the middle two. The idea is that I find something productive to do even on my off-days, and under no circumstances do any idle activity before 6pm (like posting here, or playing video games)

Bottom-line: I need to cultivate more discipline.

I need to develop a better exercise routine, right now I run about a mile every other day, and take a few swings at the punching bag. I'm thinking I should do 64 push ups, swing my 30lb dumbbells into the bag about 50 times, and kick it about 50 times at full force while holding up the 15lb dumbbells. It might not sound like much, but its better than what I do now.

Its really important that I keep up a good exercise habit, its good discipline and good for cognition.

Do you need to get up at 6 am, or do you want to have a habit of getting up early?
I used to want to have an early habit, but I discovered that it is better for me to wake up later like 8 or 8:30 or 9 to function best when I don't need to wake up earlier.
I found a big difference between 7 vs. 8.
Getting up at 7 screwed up my day usually, but getting up at 8 or a little later feels quite natural and I have lots of energy during the day.

I just wanted to get into the habit. It didn't last long, I have a hard time falling asleep before 10, 6 just feels wrong. I might end up being hired on as a night shift worker, so I might end up taking a whole new approach.

Good, it would suck to have to get up at 6, but many people have to.
My life would suck a lot more if I had to get up at 6.
I just can't function on the 6 am schedule.