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Journal.Kim —A Metasystem Experiment

It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day, that’s the hard part. But it does get easier.
—Bojack Horseman

Fifty-One: The Current Metasystem

   | #fifty-first-week  

Week Fifty-one! I’m recovering from a minor surgery and just settling in. Overall, things are going good. I’m finally diving into Eleventy which I wish I had done sooner! It’s similar to Jekyll, but a lot more powerful and flexible, and although relatively niche right now, I see a bright future ahead. I’m planning to migrate my Jekyll projects to it.

Anyways, back to Bees, it’s been since entry #25 that I went over all of my systems entirely! And since this is entry #51, perhaps I’ll make it a bi-annual sort of thing. (Would data points be too sparse to make that a feasible Beeminder? Hah!)

I apologize for the following redundancy, however I felt it was a good idea to just have a single, cohesive reference that I can add to or modify easily. Each system has a explanation, as well as an update on how progress is going:

(Additional apologies for going a little emoji-crazy, but once I start I really can’t stop.)

The Metasystem 2021: Review

🧭 LEGEND:

  • 🟢 Denotes Beeminder goals that are going really well, and are at a point where I enjoy doing them or do them automatically.
  • 🟡 Denotes Beeminder goals that I’m having difficulty with, but still manage to get done when needed.
  • 🔴 Denotes Beeminder goals that I’m either often derailing on, or putting off altogether due to friction somewhere.
  • 📝 Denotes Beeminder goals that are outcome-oriented, meaning they track finished, tangible products in some manner.
  • 🔁 Denotes Beeminder goals that are systems-oriented, meaning they track daily habits that contribute to outcomes, but can be done endlessly.
  • 🎈 Denotes Beeminder goals that are miscellaneous or meta in nature, or just for fun.

✏️ Writing

  • 🟢🔁 Writing:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of words that I write digitally, with a current rate of 450 words/day. Data added via first-party integration with Draftin.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking in June 2020, I’ve written over 160,000 words(!). I was intimated to start doing it sooner, but it was a habit that I quickly started to enjoy. Most of this is just private journal entries, but also counting blog posts, poems, and this Bee Journal!
    • 🟡📝 Blog:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of blog posts that I write, with a current rate of 1 post/week. Data added via IFTTT and Medium.
      Current Progress: I’ve written a bunch of more blog posts since I started tracking this again last year, around two dozen that I’m proud of! Recently, though, I’ve been deleting posts that I’ve been writing because I feel as though they haven’t been up to snuff, so I’m going to be lowering the rate to 2/month.
    • 🟢📝 Journalbar:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of posts that I add to Journal.Kim with a rate of 1 entry/week. Data added manually.
      Current Progress: I’m often late in writing these updates, but I still manage to get out on per week, and it’s really enjoyable!
    • 🔴🔁 Morning Pages:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of words that I write in a Google Doc, with a deadline of 11am instead of midnight like all of my other goals, and a rate of 250 words/day. Data added via URLMinder.
      Current Progress: Currently archived, I still haven’t started this one! I’m going to push myself to just get it started this week.
    • 🟡📝 Poetry:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of poems that I post, with a rate of 1 poem/week. Data added via IFTTT and Tumblr.
      Current Progress: I’ve written around 50 new poems since I started tracking this again! I’m currently in a bit of a creative slump though, but it’ll pass.
  • 🟡📝 Twitter:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of tweets that I post, with a rate of 1 tweet/day. Data added via first-party integration with Twitter.
    Current Progress: I’ve been using this on a private Twitter for a personal diary of sorts, but since I’ve been using Draft for that more extensively, I want to transition to actually using a public Twitter.

📈 Productivity

  • 🟢🔁 Productive Time:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of productive time that I spend on the computer, with a rate of 6 hrs/day. Data added via first-party integration with RescueTime.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking again last year, I’ve worked roughly 1,200 productive hours(!). Similar to Beeminder, just having the graphs and data for my usage motivates me a lot.
    • 🟢🔁 GitHub:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of commits that I push to GitHub, with a rate of 1 commit/day. Data added via GitMinder.
      Progress: Since I began tracking last year, I’ve pushed over 700 commits(!) and create a few open-source projects that I’m really proud of. I could track my time coding using WakaTime as well, but this seems to be a good metric.
    • 🟡📝 Courses:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of courses that I complete on Linkedin Learning, with a rate of 2 courses/month. Data added manually.
      Current Progress: Since I began tracking, I’ve completed dozens of courses! But I do need to work on learning retention and meaningfulness, since I can breeze by materials too quickly sometimes.
    • 🟡🔁 Learning:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of time that I spend on specific websites and software to encourage my learning in the above courses, with a rate of 1 hr/day. Data added via RescueTime with custom categories.
      Current Progress: I’ve restarted this goal a bunch because like I said, I don’t spend enough time on materials, but I’ve been getting better at it the past few months!
  • 🟡🔁 Distracting Time:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of unproductive time that I spend on the computer, with a limit of 2 hrs/day. Data added via first-party integration with RescueTime.
    Current Progress: I only have clocked around 300 hours of distracting time this year, but I do derail on this more than most other goals, so I need to be more mindful of how I spend my time on the computer.

💪 Physical Health

  • 🟢🔁 Daily Activity:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount that I walk, with a rate of 5000 steps/day. Data added via first-party integration with Fitbit.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking last year, I’ve walked over 2.5 million steps(!), though I recently cut the rate by half because I wasn’t walking as much with the cold weather, but since it’s getting warm again, I’m raising it again soon!
  • 🟢🔁 Sleeping:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount that I sleep, with a rate of 7.21 hrs/day. Data added via first-party integration with Fitbit.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking last year, I’ve slept over 2,500 hours, which is double the amount of productive time I’ve accomplished, yikes. At least I’ve been rather consistent with the amount I sleep.
  • 🟢🎈 Weight:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount that I weigh, with a rate of -2.43 lbs./month. Data added via first-party integration with Fitbit.
    Current Progress: My scale broke, (though not because of me, I swear!), but I’m down around 15 lbs. since I began tracking in October.
    • 🔴🎈 Weight-check
      Metrics: Meta, tracking the amount of times that I add my weight data to FitBit and Beeminder, with a rate of 1 data-point/day. Data added manually.
      Current Progress: I was really consistent for several months, and I hope to start again when I get a new scale, whoops!
  • 🟢🔁 Foodlog:
    Metrics: Tracking the meals that I eat, with a rate of 1 data-point/day. Data added manually.
    Current Progress: Although rather superficial, I find it is helpful to just write down what I eat, even without nutritional or caloric data, and have found myself eating more healthy over the year!

🧠 Mental Health

  • 🟢🔁 Gratitude:
    Metrics: Tracking what I’m grateful for, with a rate of 1 data-point/day. Data added manually.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking last year, I’ve written about hundreds of things I’ve been grateful for! I should probably increase this to 3 things a day, though.
  • 🟢🔁 Meditation:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of time that I meditate, with a rate of 8 minutes/day. Data added via first-party integration with Apple Health and the Insight Timer app.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking in October, I’ve meditated over 18 hours, and it’s definitely helped stabilize and increase my mood. I need to take the time I meditate more seriously, though.
    • 🟢🔁 Prayer:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of times that I perform the Rosary, with a rate of 1 prayer/day. Data added via Electronic Rosary.
      Current Progress: Similar to meditation, I’ve enjoyed beginning doing this practice, but need to isolate more time to devote towards it.

😎 Lifestyle

  • 🟢🔁 Duolingo:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of XP that I gain in Duolingo, with a rate of 20XP/day. Data added via first-party integration with Duolingo.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking last year, I’ve gained over 12,000 XP and have a 280-day streak! It’s a fun habit that helps me transition into focus, productive work.
    • 🟢🔁 Clozemaster:
      Metrics: Tracking the amount of points that I gain in Clozemaster, with a rate of 150 points/day. Data added via first-party integration with Clozemaster.
      Current Progress: Since I began tracking in October, I’ve gained 25,000 points and have a 140-day streak! I find it helps me learn French better than Duolingo at this point.
  • 🔴📝 Photos:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of photos that I post, with a rate of 1 post/day. Data added via IFTTT and Instagram.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking in July, I’ve posted over 200 photos. Although I’m also in a creative slump with this rate now, and need to find what I want to photograph.
  • 🟡📝 Books:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of books that I read, with a rate of 3 books/month. Data added manually.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking in June, I’ve read almost 30 books, or rather, listened to. I really need to get into the habit of sitting down and actually reading, instead of just having audiobooks so I can multi-task.
  • 🟢🔁 Jobs:
    Metrics: Tracking the amount of jobs that I apply for, with a rate of 3 applications/day. Data added via IFTTT and Google Sheets.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking in September, I’ve applied to almost 500 jobs, which sounds a little crazy. I know that I need to start tracking more meaningful data points, like call-backs, interviews, etc.

🤷 Meta / Misc.

  • 🟢🎈 Derail:
    Metrics: Meta, tracking the amount of times that I have to e-mail about a non-legit derail, with a current rate of 0, meaning that I will derail if this happens no matter what.
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking in November, I’ve only had to use this once so far, yay!
  • 🔴🎈 Meta:
    Metrics: Meta, tracking the amount of data-points that are added to all of my other goals, rather it’s manual or automatic, with a rate of 25 data-points/day. Data added via Beemind.me
    Current Progress: Since I began tracking in August, I’ve added nearly 9,000 data-points in Beeminder! Sadly, the API seems to have stopped working, so I’m going to have to archive. (It was silly and pointless, anyways.)