January 2019 Review

January was a relatively mild month, which was a nice way to kick off the year. Not too many major events, except a family party with Tia’s family and seeing Aladdin on Broadway which was quite good.

Productivity

Pretty good bump in productivity for January over December, which isn’t very surprising I suppose. The distraction of the holidays tends to make one less productive.

• Productivity pulse of 75 (+1)
• Met All Productive Time goal 14/21 days
• Average 5h 3m (+35m) productive time per day

RescueTime Top 5 Categories:

1. Software Development (35%)
2. Communication & Scheduling (30%)
3. Business (7%)
4. Social Networking (7%)
5. Utilities (6%)

Correlations:

Fewer correlations with productivity and day of the week this month, which makes sense given the average daily bump. There was also a real big bump in time spent in VS Code when I spend more time active - looks like getting up and walking around a bit does help me focus on writing code.

• I’m more productive on Tuesdays (21%)
• I use Visual Studio Code more when I spend more time active (36%)

Health

I was a bit more active, got a little less sleep, and spent a little less money. Overall that’s a solid month. Dip in sleep almost certainly from not being on vacation so much during January.

• Average of 6,365 steps / day (+3.2%)
• Average of 2,137 calories / day (-14.6%)
• Average of 7h 22minutes of sleep / night (-5.3%)
• Average weight of 142.9lbs (+0.5%)
• Average body fat percentage of 11.9% (-6.3%)
• I spent 80.8% of my income

Correlations:

I’m curious if I eat more when I’m in a good mood, or if I’m in a good mood because I eat more? A little bit weaker correlation between consuming caffeine and sleeping less - I didn’t check if the overall amount of caffeine went up or down so I’m not sure the reason here. I also started tracking days I don’t eat breakfast (which basically means just coffee for breakfast at the office), so this correlation might be a little off as there isn’t a ton of data yet - but it looks like not eating breakfast is not great for my mood.

• I have a better day when I consume more calories (25%)
• I consume more caffeine when I sleep less (35%)
• I have a better day when I don’t track ‘no breakfast’ (35%) and when I spend more time asleep (18%)

January’s Focus

1. Write my 2018 Review

I wrote up my 2018 annual review.

2. Decide on 2019’s overall goals

I detailed them in my annual review, but real quick again: focus on debt, “level up” my dev skills, and read and write more. After a bit more time, I think I’d expand this to include taking more ownership over my information on the Internet.

3. Setup an email newsletter

I setup an email newsletter to replace a “broadcast” medium besides my blog to replace Facebook because I quit Facebook. You can sign up for my newsletter here, or using the widget at the bottom of this post. Update: The newsletter no longer exists.

February’s Focus

1. Actually relax on vacation

At the beginning of the month, I’m going on vacation to St. Maarten with Tia and her family and I’m looking forward to some very chill beach time. Bit of a cheat on this one since this is being published after my vacation, but it was a goal for the month.

2. Read a damn book

After reading just one book last year, I want to get started on my long “to-read” list.

3. File my taxes

I like to get my taxes filed relatively early so I want to knock those out before the end of the month.

4. Start contributing to a 401k

My company recently got a 401k and after much debating, I decided I want to start contributing, even though it will mean putting a bit less in short-term savings.