March 2019 Review

March was… a month. My boss was away for two weeks for his wedding, working odd hours as his schedule allowed, which made for a busy couple weeks for me as the next go-to developer at the company. In addition, we started interviewing for a couple summer interns, which has been pretty exciting. My own internships as a college student were invaluable as I prepared to exit college, and I’m looking forward to offering a similar experience to some interns at ThankView!

I also got my tax return near the beginning of the month, which was a nice little boost to my income. I spent nearly the whole thing paying off a student loan I had been focusing extra payments on, making it the first of my loans to be paid in full! It’s a nice milestone to have achieved, even though I have 10 loans to go.

Most significantly, however, the month took a turn for the worse at the very end… Tia, my girlfriend of just over 2 years, decided this relationship wasn’t working for her anymore and moved out of our apartment. It’s something I’m coping with and won’t really focus on in this post, but it’s certainly the shadow looming over the month to come.

Productivity

Interesting to see both an increase in productivity pulse and decrease in average productive time. I’m guessing that means my minimum productivity increased even though my average dropped. I certainly felt busier / more productive all through March. I guess that’s reflected here.

• Productivity pulse of 79 (+2)
• Met All Productive Time goal 8/19 days
• Average 5h 3m (-7m) productive time per day

RescueTime Top 5 Categories:

1. Software Development (34%)
2. Communication & Scheduling (30%)
3. Business (11%)
4. Utilities (6%)
5. Entertainment (5%)

Correlations:

It’s interesting to see that I use Slack more when I send more emails - I’m guessing this is slightly born from my boss being out so much so I received many more messages and emails for tech support stuff that would’ve otherwise gone to him. It looks like Tuesday is when I spend the most time doing things on my laptop if I’m both most productive and most distracted on those days. It also looks like I make up for feeling less productive by eating salty things - I should be more productive for my health, perhaps!

• I use Slack more when I sent more emails (17%)
• I’m more productive on Tuesdays (18%) and log more distracting time on Tuesdays (20%)
• I consume more sodium when I’m less productive (34%)

Health

One weekend this month I went for a hike / walk with Tia which gave a huge boost to step averages. A little extra sleep never hurts, and that tax return boosted my income enough to bring my overall spending quite low. I also decided to add caffeine averages here, which I didn’t include in February’s review, despite having the data. The percentage change is relative to February.

• Average of 7,583 steps / day (+14.5%)
• Average of 2,130 calories / day (-13.9%)
• Average of 7 hours 57 minutes of sleep / night (+3.2%)
• Average weight of 143.8 lbs (-0.8%)
• Average body fat percentage of 12.6% (+1.6%)
• Average of 244mg of caffeine / day (+16.2%)
• I spent 78.6% of my income¹

Correlations:

Based on these correlations, I would conclude that being tired or when it rains (likely when the air pressure drops), are days I’m likely to eat more or eat more high calorie snacks. Sounds about right. More calendar events usually means more meetings or company events. Walking to conference rooms or company event locations definitely adds up. And lastly, Thursday seems to be when I need the most coffee, and unsurprisingly that raises my heart rate a bit. I also seem to use caffeine to compensate for having a rough day.

• I consume more calories when I spend less time asleep (23%) and when the air pressure is lower (22%)
• I get more steps when I have more events on my calendar (27%)
• I consume more caffeine on Thursdays (15%) and have a higher heart rate on Thursdays (21%)
• I have a better day when I consume less caffeine (21%)

March’s Focus

1. Start a Book

I started a book! I’m the forward plus the first chapter into Radical Candor by Kim Scott. The book was recommended to me by a coworker, and I’m finding it quite interesting so far.

2. Get health insurance

I did not make time to choose health insurance, but I actually have until the end of April so it’ll get done this month instead.

April’s Focus

1. Finish Radical Candor

Just finish a book, for crying out loud.

2. Get Health Insurance

I mean it this time, I actually must do it.

3. Do Another 100 Happy Days Challenge

A few years ago I stumbled upon the 100 Happy Days Challenge, which pushes you to acknowledge something that makes you happy for 100 days in row. I have completed it before, and was reminded of it again when I saw one of my high school English teachers completing yet another 100 Happy Days Challenge. I believe she’s done one every year since seeing me do my first. I’ve decided to start my own again on my birthday as a way to kick off 26. I’ll be posting photos each day on Instagram.

April is going to be a challenging month, emotionally at least. I have a few things to look forward to - a friend visiting for a weekend, a week off from work, and of course my birthday. The motto these days is just, “one day at a time.”

¹Monthly spending is calculated as expenses, divided by income, minus 2%. The 2% reflects my 401k savings, which never arrives as income in Mint. This is to help me better estimate what my overall savings rate is.