Finished a new book and sharing my reading list for the first half of the year
What's up, Hive! Welcome to my first ever Personal Development Digest where I will be sharing things I've worked on for my own personal development with the aim of bringing value to those who are also working on their own growth. This was inspired by the book Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon.
I finished reading the book recently and it's a quick read. I was able to finish it in less than an hour. My main takeaway from it is that in order to reach an audience, you have to be 'reachable.' This can be done by sharing about your work and your process in a consistent and interesting manner. That's what I hope to do with this regular digest.
Since I've rediscovered the joy of reading, I've been serious about my reading goals. I intend to read 24 books this year and so far, I've finished 5.
Here is my reading list for the first half of the year:
- Journal to the Self: Twenty-Two Paths to Personal Growth by Kathleen Adams
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (second read)
- The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale #2) by Margaret Atwood
- The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
New Life Coaching tool unlocked: Attack your unhelpful thoughts using Socratic Questioning
I've taken an online Life Coaching course at the start of the year and it's been really helpful in terms of my own personal growth. I'm not looking to become a Life Coach anytime soon. I've taken the course mostly to improve myself.
The latest lecture I've found to be really useful was about Socratic Questioning. It came at a perfect time when I'd been feeling off and negative thoughts seem to populate my mind.
Socratic Questioning is a tool in evaluating whether our thoughts are accurate or not. It is particularly helpful in dealing with negative thoughts that prevent us from doing the things that we want to do. These thoughts can be fear-based, self-doubts, assumptions, and generalizations. Thoughts influence our feelings and a lot of times, our thoughts and feelings get in the way of our best intentions.
Running some of my thoughts through the 10 questions, which I've shown above, helped me ground my thinking and not let it run wild.
Discovered a new task management app - Tick Tick!
For more than two years already, I've been using Microsoft To-Do as my main task management app and it's been really helpful in organizing the things I want and need to do in life. The best thing about it is it's free. But one of the features that I really wanted to have is a Calendar View of all my tasks. Microsoft To-Do doesn't have that feature and it has no integration with any calendar app.
I was watching MKBHD review the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra on YouTube and he casually mentions his task management app, Tick Tick. I was curious and I checked it out. I was excited to see that it has a calendar view of its tasks. The feature was available for premium users only for $27.99. I was more than willing to spend that amount on my personal development.
I migrated my goals and tasks and I'm quite happy with my new to-do list app. It has tons of features and the sight of my tasks neatly arranged in a calendar calms me down.
It even has a Habit Tracker! I was surprised and delighted to see the feature. I've been using my journal to log my habits but now, I don't need to do that.
There's another feature I didn't know I needed. The app has an Eisenhower Matrix. After putting all my tasks, I can categorize each one according to their priority level by simply dragging them around the quadrants of the matrix.
The best thing about this app is the sound when you tick a task as done. It's so satisfying that I can feel the dopamine kicking in. * insert Feels Good meme *
Received my journal after months of waiting
I decided I want to do journaling for this year and before the end of 2021, I ordered a blank-page leather-bound journal hoping that it would arrive in time for 2022. Unfortunately, the super typhoon came and my journal was stuck in a warehouse in Manila. It stayed there for over a month before the online shop told me it would be returned to the seller. I ordered it again and waited for it to arrive.
When it came, it was beautiful. I've always wanted a blank page notebook ever since. The leather cover was so good to the touch.
I don't have any grand ideas for the journal. My girlfriend keeps a bullet journal and I think it's a lot of work to set it up. I have a few ideas after reading the book, Journal to the Self but I just want my journal to contain my Daily Entries, my Weekly Gratitude and Reflection, and my Monthly Highlights.
Getting a bit serious about my fasting
Do you know what 'hangry' means? It's when you become angry when you're hungry. It's one of my tendencies. For a while now, I've become aware that I lose my cool when I have nothing to eat for hours. I do and say things that I regret later on.
The solutions I've come up with to help me with this problem are to (1) keep a snack with me all the time, and (2) practice handling my reactions during times when I have nothing to eat.
I have been fasting once a month for a whole day and it has to be a workday so that I'll have interactions with other people. It's been going well so far and recently, I've decided to bring it to the next level. I'll be fasting once a week on Fridays for the next 6 weeks. This decision is in alignment with my goal to bring my weight down to 72kg and observe the Catholic practices during the Lenten season.
Workout video recommendation: Short and intense yoga workout
I've just come back to my Daily Yoga Practice since it's been difficult getting back to my routine after moving back to our house. It was damaged by the typhoon last December. One of the videos that stood out was the video above. I didn't have a lot of time one morning and I searched for a short and intense yoga workout. The video killed me despite it being just 15 minutes.
If you're looking for a quick but intense yoga-based strength training workout, check the video out.
That's it for my PD digest! I hope some of the things I've shared were helpful and interesting in some ways to you. See you in the next one. Cheers!
And together, let us all reach our full potential!
