Today's thoughts: Progress report of my trivial hobbies and Week 3

 So...

I haven't been exercising. I haven't been posting at least twice a week in my blog. But I'm already on a 21-day streak on Duolingo. So far by the end of January, I've only hit one of my three targets. This consistency thing is challenging. But let's see for February. 

For Duolingo, not only have I continued with my French and Spanish, I've also added Italian to the list. I'm glad I'm able to understand a few phrases of these three languages, with Spanish being my strongest. 

Anyway, let's try our best to be consistent with the blogging. As for exercising, I'll try. But it's just too damn cold to exercise in the gym. I try to keep active inside the apartment, doing squats and weights with one dumbbell. It's not as structured as I want it to be, but enough to elevate my heart rate.

Aside from assessing my progress at the end of January, let's see what happened this week...

This week's classes were all held virtually because of a snowstorm that happened here in Texas. temperatures dropped below 0degC since Monday until Thursday. In a way, I'm thankful whenever classes are done online because I don't need to wake up early to prepare and bike to school. I'm also never late when classes are via Zoom.

Another update: I was encouraged by my new adviser to submit an abstract for the Research Appreciation Day at our university. It's a week-long event where students and faculty showcase their research through poster presentations. This takes me back to my UP days in 2007-2011 where my paper took me to three conferences abroad --- Italy, Austria, and Thailand --- and one local conference --- Davao. It's been more than a decade since and this abstract submission is making me anxious. I'm really thankful for my new adviser now for being supportive and encouraging. A student's productivity is also in part of the adviser's mentoring. And I'm glad the new one that I have is a nurturing mentor. I look forward to working with him in the years to come, that is, if I plan to stay at HSC.

This week also, I was able to work on my assignments at a leisurely pace and submit it on time. I also was able to read up for one of my classes, and I plan to continue reading until I finish it. I must say, not procrastinating is something so joyful and so relaxing. Being able to tick everything in the list on time, and having extra personal time to spend because you're done with work, ah, it's truly fulfilling. 

I've read numerous times in books and articles that being able to finish work actually fuels you to do more work, which in turn prevents procrastination. And yes, that is very true. That rush of excitement and fulfillment having been able to finish your task well ahead of the deadline or just in time but at a leisurely pace, it's inspiring and motivating. Seeing the task boxes ticked in my Supernote makes me super happy.

I really should keep this up. Little by little, I'm able to master myself. I like this feeling. :)