May 2019 Review

I feel pretty good about May! Things kicked off with a trip to Boston where I got to catch up with some old friends, and attended An Event Apart (my third year in a row!). After the conference, I put together a presentation for the office. It felt great to get back into public speaking a little, and I got a lot of positive feedback from my coworkers about the presentation too, so that was nice.

A friend from high school stayed with me for a weekend at the end of his cross-country trip visiting every MLB stadium so we caught a Yankees game and a Mets game, which was a lot of fun. I also hadn’t seen him in quite a while so it was awesome to catch up and wander NYC with him.

I also started dating this month, which has been interesting. I went on a handful of dates and I’d forgotten just how awkward it can be. None of them have been bad, per se, a couple were even good. But a healthy dose of awkward was present at them all.

Finally, right at the end of the month we had a couple engineering interns start at ThankView for the summer. It’s been awesome to have them join, and they’re both off to a strong start so I think we’re in for a good summer! My own internships were transformative for the start of my career, so I’m hoping I can help provide a similar experience for the interns on our team.

And that’s May in a nutshell. On to the rest of it…

Productivity

Productivity pulse was equal, but average productive time is way up. Missed my all productive time goal very slightly less often than last month, but still really solid. I think it’s time to increase my daily goal from 5 hours all productive time to 5.25 hours all productive time. Last month my average was just shy of 5.5 hours and this month it’s well over, but I don’t quite want to push it to 5.5 until my average is above that a bit longer.

• Productivity pulse of 79 (+0)
• Met All Productive Time goal 18/22 days
• Average 5h 50m (+24m) productive time per day

RescueTime Top 5 Categories:

1. Software Development (28%)
2. Communication & Scheduling (22%)
3. Design & Composition (18%)
4. Business (10%)
5. Utilities (5%)

Correlations:

Some good insights here. Days with highs amounts of sugar are probably the days I dip into the candy jar at work. Might be worth noting when I find myself reaching for the sweets, as it’s probably a sign I’m distracted. Correlations for days of the week and productivity weakened across the board in Exist, but it appears the “recent” data filter started pulling 365 days of data rather than 150 days, so it might not be worth looking at these correlations each month any more.

• I consume more sugar when I’m less productive (31%)
• I’m more productive on Tuesdays (16%), and on days it’s not raining (30%)
• I consume more caffeine when I’m more productive (42%)

Health

It’s nice to see I’ve maintained the same activity level. Not so nice to see that I averaged a lot less sleep. There were times I definitely felt the lack of sleep, so that’s something to pay attention to in June - it also probably explains the slight increase in caffeine. Unsure how I managed to lose weight while eating more, but here we are.

A bit disappointed in myself for not reigning in spending better, but a friend visited one weekend, and Lights announced a new tour and naturally I had to buy tickets so, here we are.

• Average of 8,646 steps / day (-3%)
• Average of 2,072 calories / day (+8%)
• Average of 6 hours 43 minutes of sleep / night (-6.3%)
• Average weight of 138.4 lbs (-1.7%)
• Average body fat percentage of 11.2% (-8.9%)
• Average of 223mg of caffeine / day (+9.6%)
• I spent 94.1% of my income¹

Correlations:

The Instagram correlation here is interesting, but perhaps just skewed because I’ve been getting less sleep lately, and have been posting to Instagram daily, rather than just occasionally as I did months ago. Having a better day when I don’t skip breakfast is equally strong as April, so I really should eat breakfast more if I want to have a better day. Exist also told me I tagged 19 days with “no breakfast” so, clearly I didn’t commit to eating breakfast.

• I spend more time asleep when the night is cooler (17%)
• I post more on Instagram when I spend less time asleep (30%)
• I consume more caffeine on Mondays (21%)
• I have a better day when I don’t tag “no breakfast” (33%), and when I consume more calories (21%)

May’s Focus

1. Keep riding that positive wave

I don’t know how to tell objectively if I managed this, but I certainly feel like I had a great month. I’m calling it a win.

2. Write a non-review blog post

I did this! I had a weird commute home one evening where I was in a bit of daze and just started spilling a bunch of thoughts into a note on my phone, which I later published as this post. It felt pretty great to write something other than a review.

June’s Focus

1. Stop spending so much on food

So far this year, I’ve spent $2,879.41 on food & dining - that’s about $576 a month! This is, clearly, way too much. It’ll be a little challenging, I think, but I’ve set a goal of spending half as much, cutting my budget to just $280 this month. This will mean a lot less eating out, and probably buying a lot less beer at the grocery store - not a bad thing.

2. Read another book

With Radical Candor out of the way, it’s time to read another book. There’s a handful of short ones for work I’ve been holding onto, so I’ll probably tackle one of those. Or maybe pick up where I left off in Temeraire.

3. Run 3 times a week

After Memorial Day I started running again. I fit in two runs before work last week, and I’d like to do 3 a week. I’ve just been doing laps around my block, which is nice because I never have to cross a street. It becomes really mindless, so I can just zone out with some music and run. Each lap is about a third of a mile and I try to do 7 laps.

June has a few events to look forward to. I’ll be going on a company retreat in the Catskills for three days, which is sure to be a blast. I’m also going to Texas to help my dad move, so I’ll be doing a bit of traveling. Besides that, I’m just excited that summer is here!

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.