Monthly Review: September 2017

At the end of last month’s review, I teased, “more to come in September,” with the intention of writing a separate post telling about what would be happening. I never got around to that post but, the very end of September brought an enormous change: I moved in with my girlfriend on Long Island and started a new job in New York City.

I had accepted the job at the end of August, but hadn’t gone public with it yet, which is why I excluded it from the August review. As a result of the impending move, the second half of September was extremely hectic. Wrapping up one job, preparing to move, fitting in time to see my friends before I left… it was a bit of a whirlwind.

Now that October has arrived, I’ve moved, I’ve started my new job, and I’m learning what the new normal is supposed to be.

Productivity

As my last couple weeks at ClickSpark came to a close, I wrapped up projects, wrote documentation and handed things off to the rest of the team. This left me with little to do day to day, which really tanked my productivity score. Indeed, I would have liked more to do in my final days, but in the end the last major project I was set to finish was handed over to someone else on the team.

• Productivity pulse of 63 (-7)
• Average of 0 completed tasks per day
• Met All Productive Time goal 4/18 days

RescueTime Top 5 Categories:

1. Communication & Scheduling (32%)
2. Software Development (20%)
3. Social Networking (14%)
4. Business (9%)
5. Reference & Learning (7%)

Correlations:

Monday still seems to be my strongest day. I do like starting off the week strong, as I feel it sets the stage for a productive week. Something to figure out might be how to sustain that productive streak the rest of the week. Also interesting to see the correlation of calories and productivity strengthen - brain food perhaps?

• I’m more productive on Mondays (24%) and Tuesdays (23%)
• I consume more calories when I’m more productive (27%)
• I have more good days (rated a 4) when I receive fewer emails (18%)

Health

I did a lot more walking in September, and I think this was bolstered by the constant pacing around my apartment as I tried to figure out how to pack everything. I also went out to eat more with my friends than was typical, which I think caused the bump in calories.

I also decided not to calculate what percentage of my income was spent this month as without calculating it exactly I know it’s well over 150% because moving is expensive, particularly when you have to terminate an apartment lease more than 6 months early.

• Average of 6,858 steps / day (+28.6%)
• Average of 2,296 calories / day (+3.9%)
• Average of 6h 36minutes of sleep / night (+5.8%)
• Average weight of 143.3lbs (-0.3%)
• Average body fat percentage of 12.8% (+0%)

Correlations:

This is the third month in a row the correlation of early bedtime and more time asleep has strengthened. It would seem that if I really want to get more sleep it’s pretty straightforward - just go to bed earlier. Being more well-rested also seems to make me more likely to do my pull-up workout (which makes sense). In all my preparation for moving, however, I didn’t do my workout at all this month. Being more well rested (waking less in the night) also seems to have an impact on my mood at the end of the day.

• I spend more time asleep when I go to bed earlier (72%)
• I track “pullups” more when I spend more time asleep (29%)
• I have more bad days when I get less sleep (19%) and when I don’t track “coffee” (18%)
• I have more good days when I wake less during sleep (12%)

Books Finished

I finished the next book in my series. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the others but it was still okay. On to the next.

• /Empire of Ivory/ by Naomi Novik (3/5)

Main Goal Progress

Moving took an enormous chunk of my savings - early lease terminations on apartments are really expensive. So, unfortunately, I’m way off this goal, and unsure I’ll be able to reach it ($5,000 in savings) in just 3 months. I had to withdraw $1,827.25 (net withdrawal, I did make some smaller random deposits as I could), which brings me down to $1,722.39. Not where I want to be but, there it is.

I also ended up racking up a fair amount on my credit card as well, closing September with a balance of $554.91, up from last month’s $81.25.

And lastly, as I noted before, I did not do my pull-up workouts at all in September. My pull-up bar also doesn’t sit as comfortably in the door frame of my new bedroom, so I won’t have it at my disposal for a while (it’s now in storage with my furniture), so workouts will have to wait.

Main Goals Next Month

Pay off my credit card. My new job came with a comfortable raise, and through the generosity of my girlfriend’s parents (where we’re currently living) I will have a lower rent payment than I’ve had on my own so this shouldn’t be too hard to manage. I’d like to focus on getting that to $0 over putting money back in savings so I don’t get slammed by the interest.

The other thing to focus on: getting adjusted to NYC life. As of this post it’s been just a week at my new job and commuting to the city and it’s certainly different. Hopefully it doesn’t take more than a month for this to feel normal.