I publish a monthly review of habits, work, etc. You’ll be able to find them all here.
August was a pretty amazing month. I was able to fly down to Florida and visit family and friends for a long weekend. When I got back to Colorado, I teamed up with some friends from the gym for a 200-mile Ragnar Relay from Copper Mountain to Snowmass. It was a ton of fun, and I can’t wait to do the next one.
As for goals and habits, I made progress from July. My reading was a big success in particular. Here’s a full breakdown and list of what I’m going to focus on in September.
Goal Recap From August
✖️ Publish 4 blog posts on my personal blog
I published one about looking back on a year of being a team lead and another on how Automattic handles all hands support.
We’re ramping up our blogging efforts over on Drink for Pink as well so I’ll be writing more in the upcoming months both here and there.
✖️ Push 4 PRs to Calypso
I ended up with only two here (#, #). Most of my extra time was spent helping to launch a new live courses page at Automattic. With that being said, I was able to contribute a tiny bit by adding some advertising throughout our purchase flow.
✔️ Read 3 books
Success! I read or listened to a total of four books (listed below). I blocked off the majority of my evening for reading starting around 8:30pm.
What habit did I focus on?
Shutdown by 5pm. 12/23
My goal over the last month has been to shutdown at work and be off my computer by 5pm each night. It was really hard to judge success here. For one, there were a few nights were I specifically chose to work late. Other times, I would pop on for personal writing.
If I’m looking at Momentum, I was successful 12 days during the month and failed 11 days so roughly 50% completion rate. I’m going to keep the same habit this month and actively mark days I skip for specific reasons so I can have a more accurate tally.
Homescreen
This has stayed pretty similar to previous months. No big additions or subtractions. The main thing has been removing Launch Center Pro and sticking Simplenote in my dock so I can quickly add notes.
Books
I read three books and listened to one in August:
- Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win
- Einstein’s Dreams
- Ego Is the Enemy (audio)
- Leading Change
Of the books I read, I would recommend Ego Is the Enemy and Extreme Ownership.
Up next for this month, I’m going to finish reading The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh, The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker, and either The Effortless Experience by Matthew Dixon or Your Turn by Seth Godin.
For audio books, I’m currently listening to Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman.
Time Spent Coding
3hr 55m
As mentioned above, most of my extra time was focused on the courses project limiting time for everything else. With our company Grand Meetup combined with vacation in September and October coming up quickly for Drink for Pink, it’s likely this won’t pick back up a ton until November. However, I am taking a Redux-oriented course at our Grand Meetup, which I’m really looking forward to.
Goals For September
Here’s what I’m focused on over the next month.
Goal: Publish 4 blog posts on my personal blog and 4 on Drink for Pink
I’m going to get in a regular routine if it kills me. Tuesdays will be for the personal blog and Thursdays for Drink for Pink.
Goal: Read 3 books
In order to hit my 36 book goal for 2016, I need to keep up the pace and either hit 3 or 4 books each month throughout the rest of the year.
Goal: Send out two newsletters.
Despite continuing to get regular signups, I have neglected my newsletter over the past few months. Since I don’t really use social media any longer, I really enjoy putting these together. It’s all of the links and videos I find on leadership and self-improvement along with a little bit of commentary.
It goes out every other week (issue next week) so if you’re interested in that sort of thing, sign up!
Habit for September
I’m going to keep the same habit of shutting down my computer by 5pm each night and not logging on again until the next morning. I did okay in August, but I would like to do much better this month. I’ll have fewer days since I’ll be out for two weeks so I should be able to really nail the days I’m at work.
Photo credit: Unsplash
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