Monthly Review: December 2016

The Numbers

• Productivity pulse of 62 (135.8 hours logged) (+5)
• Average of 7h 21m of sleep each night (+4.2%)
• Average calories of 2,171 (-4.2%)
• Average steps: 5,708/day (+27.9%)
• Money spent: 54.7% of income)
• Books read: 1 (+1)
• Blog posts written: 1 (-1)

Exist Insights:

• I’m more productive on Wednesdays (30%) and complete more tasks on Wednesdays (22%).
• I log more distracting time on Mondays (22%)
• I have more bad days when I spend less time asleep (24%)
• I eat consume more energy when I wake up earlier (19%) and on Fridays (23%)

RescueTime top 5 categories:

• Software Development (32%)
• Communication & Scheduling (15%)
• Social Networking (13%)
• Entertainment (11%)
• Utilities (9%)

Thoughts

December was a particularly hectic month. For one, I took a 6-day trip to Texas to help my dads move, and for two, I took a few days off work so I could travel to Maine to spend Christmas with my mother’s family. As a result, I spent a lot of time traveling in back-to-back weeks, and not a whole lot of time at the office. I’m thoroughly grateful for my employer’s flexibility - strictly speaking I didn’t have that much vacation time to use, but they let me go anyway - but it made for an exhausting second half of the month for sure. That my travel coincided with significant project deadlines at work also made me feel a bit guilty for leaving, but it’s all worked out so far.

Because of my trip to Texas, I got a whole lot more steps in than normal. Multiple 12,000+ step days while moving pulls the average up a lot. I also managed to get a bit more sleep in, thankfully, and I /finally/ finished reading Jony Ive on my flights to and from Texas. I managed to spend very little of my income this month as well, thanks entirely to a nice Christmas bonus that gave me a boost.

Unlike most people, I actually ate less during the holidays, with a pretty significant decrease in typical calorie intake. This was more a consequence of my normal routine being thoroughly disrupted than anything else. When I don’t have a rigid schedule, I almost always end up just forgetting to eat.

As mentioned last month, I wanted to spend time preparing for new goals in 2017. I’ll discuss those at length in my yearly review and spare the details for now. At this point, I’m just glad 2016 is over. I’ve a lot to reflect on, so be sure to see my 2016 review.