Last Updated: 29 May 2026
Finally posted my first article!
For almost a month and a half, I realized that I was setting expectations too high for myself. The breakthrough finally came when I told myself I'm not allowed to spend more than an hour on any single article. Right now my goal is roughly one new article per week. For the next few months I'm not worrying too much about quality or lots of editing and am trying to just get the reps in.
Success with Reading and Journaling
At the same time I had the realization about this blog, I also had a realization about reading and journaling. I have been worried for a while about losing the ability to think critically (which seems even more important now in the age of AI). After reading some work by Cal Newport, I decided that reading and writing were the clearest levers I could pull to help strengthen the thinking muscles. In the theme of the blog where I tried to make the expectations as minimal as possible, I made it my goal to, at minimum, write 2 sentences in a notebook and read 1 paragraph in a book. Although setting these goals so low feels kind of ridiculous — I mean how are you going to read a book one paragraph at a time — it makes it impossible to not do. Both goals together should take about 2 minutes one days where I only do the minimum. However, there have only been one or two days in the past 9 where I've even done close to the minimum. The other days I've done far more than the minimum and have spent probably 30 minutes on journaling and reading. Setting the expectation so low and not having any specific topics to write about makes it feel so easy to do. In previous journaling attempts, I was unsuccessful because I tried to fully chronicle my day which took a lot more time. Now, I can just write two sentences about anything I want, which feels much more manageable.
LOVING My Uniball Jetstream RT Pens!
I remember doing research on the best pens a year or so ago and bought them then, but I never really had many opportunities to use them. Since I've been journaling by hand so much in the last week, I've been getting a lot of use out of them. They are so smooth to write with, dry instantly, and don't bleed through the paper in my moleskin notebook like many other pens do. They aren't super cheap, but they're definitely worth it — I got a 3-pack on Amazon for about $10. They've also been rated the best pen by Wirecutter for the past 10 years or something. That's probably how I initially found them. If you're unsatisfied with your current pens, definitely try them out.
Started Online Classes
I decided to start taking some online classes to begin making progress towards a degree. Right now I'm just starting with 2 classes. So far it seems like a lot of work, but I think it will be good for me.