graphic-design-student

[graphic-design-student]

Day 31 - Sa - Oct 10

Today is the last day of this blog. I just typed in “Day 31″ and got a little confused until I realized that we started these on the 10th of last month, not the 11th. It’s actually a 31-day blog (though maybe I could’ve gotten away with skipping one somewhere. Anyway, back to the usual formula one more time...

Today was not the most productive day, and I wouldn’t say it was a proud way to end this project, but I am definitely proud of the habits and mindsets these past 31 days have helped me build.

Overall, I used my phone for a total of (3hrs 22m) today, though that doesn’t stand out as significantly above average for this past month. Like most days, Chrome was my most used app, at (over 1hr). I think this is an unreasonable amount, as I rarely remember what I spent my time looking at/reading online. Additionally, I had uncapped my YouTube time limit again to take some screenshots for this project, and ended up watching (1hr) total. Though, I’ve spent so much time watching YouTube on my PC these past few days that it hardly makes a difference.

I decided to turn my phone notifications and sound effect audio on for the first time in months (I didn’t even remember what my ringtone sounded like) for two reasons. 1) I often miss texts and e-mails because I’ve set my phone down. This is intentional, however, to cut down on my media/social consumption. I may turn it back off. 2) On the flip side, I got an even bigger boost of dopamine from each task I checked off on Habitica today, because of the little satisfying sounds it makes. I might leave just that part on. Still, avoiding too many stimuli is one of my main goals these days. On a similar note, I also set my phone to switch to dark mode between sunset and sunrise recently, in hopes that I’ll be less wired before bed and in case I have to turn it on in the night. This does, however, increase the risk of me feeling comfortable using my phone more at night, so I’ll have to be careful. Also redesigned my phone layout today (another method of procrastination-justification). The depressing greys and dark blues were making me lethargic, so I went for something more lively and readable (turned out too many colors on my phone wasn’t a big contributing factor to my overstimulation).

I took a look at a bit more of the first presidential debate, which I had missed, but couldn’t stand to hear much and switched back to more light-hearted stuff pretty quickly. I spent a lot more of today watching skate films and other skateboarding videos. In case it wasn’t apparent from a few of my favorite posts, I go through a lot of little (but intense) “phases”. I might be really into cars, skateboarding, chess, videogames, calisthenics, etc. for a couple months and totally burn myself out learning about/practicing it. Unlike typical phases, though, a lot of mine come back around after a few years and, being that I’ve already gained some experience, I’m able to jump back in real fast. It’s just the natural way I get excited about learning, and feeds heavily into my consumption habits.

This blog, while very informal, has been a great little experience. It’s taught me to be mindful of my daily actions and habits, and to pay attention to what I consume, how I consume, and what the results of my consumption are. I don’t know if I’m willing to dedicate the time to continuing this blog, but I’ll likely do something similar. I generally don’t enjoy structured writing, and have just never given this type of mental-dump, semi-analytical, observational writing a try. I might start just jotting down simple notes throughout the day about my actions and what I think/feel about them, or I may even start another images-only blog, which would include some daily or weekly comments. It’s a great way to keep track of yourself, and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to try it out. I look forward to reading back through all this while working on subsequent projects later in the semester.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 30 - F - Oct 9

Today was another day spent with my girlfriend, so of course, I didn’t get much done. It was a much needed rest, though, and I’m very relieved to have gotten over the hurdle of this weeks papers, projects, and portfolio-prep (even with the massive fog of lingering stress).

I’ve come to learn over the past few months about the importance of spending time with people that make you happy. And more importantly, I’ve learned how essential it is to be mindful and present in your interactions with them. When I’m around my family, my friends, or my girlfriend, I often feel a great amount of relief from the stress that’s been following me, but if I’m still thinking about that stress and not focusing on whomever I’m with, I’m not able to really “consume” their presence. I may be laughing/relaxing/working with them, but I’m not always really “there”, and after we part, I’ll soon go back to being stressed. In short, I want to work on building a strong social circle around myself, and I want to work on being much, much more intentional with my consumption of positive social time with the different people in my life.

As for our activities today, we ate some precooked alfredo, some salmon she cooked (my favorite), and had some sugary drinks (I’ll allow it when I’m with someone else). It was a lazy day, but we did go for an early evening dog walk/skateboard cruise around the neighborhood. I think it had been most of a week since I’d gotten out. I’ve been cooped up inside and so fixated on the work I’ve needed to do.

Watched only a bit of YouTube tonight. There’s this Japanese skater named Miyagi Gou whose style I really like. Very free-spirited and uninhibited by expectation. I want to be more like that. Probably saw something in the video that remined me about my years learning the language in high school/abroad. Decided to open up my kanji study app (SRS, Wanikani), and had a good little study session. Even if I don’t dive deep into language learning again soon, it would be nice to keep up a little daily/weekly habit anyway. In fact, I might cut out some time for foreign media again. Always fun to see how other countries tell a story, and it might inspire me to study again.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 29 - Th - Oct 8

Today was a blur. Not that productive, but felt very busy. Was very stressful. Portfolio applications for graphic design are due tomorrow, and I only managed to upload a very rudimentary version tonight. It’s completely unorganized and needs some heavy formatting and design work.

I actually spent most of the day wrapping up my paper for this class, which was due at midnight (got it in on time!) My group and I had been slow on the uptake with how important peer reviews were, and did a bulk of our edits last minute. Mostly just conversed through email. You know, I’ve been using just email a lot with my peers lately, which is odd. We typically opt for GroupMe or a group sms chat, but email works fine. It probably feels smoother because of how much I’ve had to use it this semester. I’ve been getting an average of roughly 18 emails/day recently. It felt exhausting before, but I’ve gotten largely used to it.

In my limited down time, I browsed tumblr for a little while. I’m not sure if I should be concerned by my saying this, but I actually really enjoy just scrolling through tumblr aimlessly. It’s the first time I haven’t felt put off by any aspects of a social media platform. It’s clean, simple, and seems to avoid a lot of the unhealthy (and downright malicious) features that other platforms sport, thought I won’t get into that. Social media (YouTube aside) has been something I’ve primarily avoided, but as a graphic designer, I know I’ll need to learn what I can asap. Maybe tumblr is a good place for me to start observing what’s popular/appealing to different audiences.

Had a bunch of lattes today. I don’t even count anymore. It’s like breathing to me now. I’m not worried though. Only 1-200mg of caffeine daily. The rest is decaf, so mostly just hot, frothy milk and bean-water (barring all the food science claims/suggestions regarding confusing health risks/benefits). Good stuff. Might switch back to tea though. It’s primarily just a tool to trick myself into enjoying sitting down and getting work done. All that much more appealing as winter approaches.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 28 - W - Oct 7

Like the past few days, I don’t remember much of what I did. I got out the habit of taking notes throughout the day several days back, and so I’ve had nothing to rely on. Oh well.

With YouTube’s time limit left uncapped (foolishly), I was able to binge-watch most of the day. It wasn’t so bad though. Kinda fun actually. Very relaxing. Zero guilt, actually. (That may just be a dangerous build-up of tolerance to the negative feelings that typically come from procrastination, but I digress.) Nothing much else to say about today.

Watched some mini-docs on tennis. Lit a candle for the first time in a while. Just took it slow.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 27 - Tu - Oct 6

Wow, I started today off on a fantastic not. I had an amazing (-ly unhealthy) breakfast. Bacon-coffee-bagel combo. Terrible for me, but just what I needed. I struggle to consume much food most mornings (at this around 10am) as it makes me feel sick and lethargic, but I was hungry this morning. I actually try to consume as many fats and proteins as I can in the morning, because they help me put on weight (which I desperately need), and I can avoid the insomnia-inducing indigestion caused by a large, greasy dinner.

Eating a lot in the morning tends to make me feel like eating all day too. That, combined with my habit of stress-eating, made today a big food day. I took hourly trips to the kitchen to grab another snack/small meal. Too much to document. I had several bottled teas, multiple coffees, a bunch of fruit, some leftovers, and a few bagels more than what’s shown below. I know it’s not good to go up and down with my eating like this, but this is what happens when I’m in a mental fog.

I had YouTube uncapped today, as can be seen in the (49m) watch time above. I didn’t feel as tempted as I sometimes do, though. Maybe I was just too busy stuffing my face to be interested.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 26 - M - Oct 5

Today, I woke up barely in time for class. I felt absolutely exhausted all day, but had an ongoing feeling similar to an adrenaline rush, probably both thanks to yesterday’s coursework grind. I lost focus during class and ended up working on some physical work while-half listening to the lecture. There are plenty of similar resources provided, so I’ll be able to look back later.

I peer reviewed some of my in-person classmates’ rough typographical animations this morning and took some inspiration for my own. YES, my phone does say that I used it for (6hrs 7m) today, but at least 80m of that was spent using a free stop-motion animation app for my project. The other time was spent mostly on entertainment. I did actually adhere to the 30m YT limit today, but I had to unlock it for some individual drum practice.

Speaking of which, I almost decided to take the day off from club. I was still feeling wired and spaced-out this afternoon, and I know I’ll have a rough week with projects, my portfolio review application, and other work, so I just didn’t want to go anywhere. Still, I forced myself too, knowing that some social time and the act of simply getting away from home would be good for me. I’m really glad I did. We were very productive, it was a good time, and I worked up a sweat. Very rewarding. I want to take my role as president seriously and make the club a priority.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 25 - Su - Oct 4

What can I even say about today? I got a whole lot done. A whole lot. I was a productivity machine. I’d let a bunch of assignments pile up this past week, so I had no choice but to do them all back-to-back this weekend. Yesterday ended up being less productive than I’d planned, but I guess I still respond well to pressure, because I worked for probably (10hrs) straight today (minus some breaks) with no hesitation.

I had another bottle of that Humm brand kombucha today. I’m not even the one picking it up at the store, but I’m still drinking it at least every other day. It’s an expensive habit, so I’ll probably stop drinking them soon, but for now I’ve got a collection of the bottles going. I’ll upload a pick (probably to this day) on the last day of all the bottled drinks I’ve consumed this month.

Hit my (30m) YouTube limit pretty fast today. I’d been excited about how well I was able to resist recently, but much of that has disappeared and I’ve regressed back to tapping the app out of habit. In line with my mindful, focused study/work time today, I also spent a good chunk of the evening with very intentional fun/recreation. Played some Death Stranding again (1.5hrs), and it felt WAY more enjoyable and relaxing after a day of hard work.

I also had time to help out with dinner again tonight. We cooked another Everyplate meal, and this one actually turned out GREAT. Way better than I expected from a meal kit of this price. We made pork bibimbap which neither of us had made before, and only I’ve eaten much of, so the final product wasn’t all that accurate, but it was still a satisfying meal. I think this has convinced us to continue ordering from them weekly (3-5 meals, $35-65/week, for two people).

[graphic-design-student]

Day 24 - Sa - Oct 3

Because a large percentage of the food we consume is consumed during and after dinner, we’ve found the Everyplate portion sizes to be a little bit too small for our liking (and I’m sure many people would). So, we still decided to order three meals per week, but for this week we doubled the order from 2 servings/meal to 4. That brings the total for this week to ($65). Add $5 for extra ingredients, and assuming that each of the 3 meals will feed both of us roughly 1.5 times, that comes to around ($8/meal) per person. For dinners and the occasional lunch, that’s pretty good.

My beloved little sister visited for the first time since the semester started, so I (foolishly) (or maybe in accordance with what really matters in life) (who knows) tossed all my coursework and responsibilities aside and spent the day goofing off. We took a trip to Target and I managed to resist buying anything. In fact, I hardly felt the urge to. A few months ago, I would’ve walked out with at least $25 of impulse-buys. I’m not sure if this change in mental state is due to good habit building, distracted thoughts (as a result of school), or just me getting genuinely sick of dealing with too much s t u f f . That said, I did order a cold matcha latte ($4) after building up a sweat walking around. It’s much more appealing to buy food/drinks when I’m with someone else. The feelings of guilt are far less noticable.

Listened to a bunch of our favorite music on my google home while chilling around the apartment today.

I spent the majority of the mid-late evening (2-3hrs) working on a design layout concept for my web design course. This involved looking through YouTube to find Adobe Illustrator tutorial videos that might assist me in developing a logo. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find exactly what I’m looking for. Adobe programs have some much depth, complexity, and variety that there’s too much content and too little standardization to easily find reliable sources of information regarding their use. Most of my design courses spend very little time teaching the actual, practical skills that many of us will need, so it often comes down to watching YouTube tutorials or simple guesswork.

Just a bit ago, I spent (1-2hrs) playing Death Stranding. It was satisfying after a long day of work. I’m stressed about all I have to get done tomorrow and this next week, but I’m going to put effort into avoiding distractions (mindful entertainment aside), maintaining my health, and getting work done.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 23 - F - Oct 2

I woke up to the daily NPR News Now podcast (~10m) at 10am, as I’ve been doing for a week or two now. It’s a nice way to start off the day and helps me feel connected with the rest of the world (or the nation, at least), even if it’s not all stuff I want to have on my mind. I was up late working on school projects last night, but the podcast, a latte (or two), and a bit of overwhelming stress got me up and going.

My girlfriend had tried out my skateboard a few times over the past week and decided she wanted to learn so she could ride around campus, so I took her over to Zombie Boardshop to put together a cruiser setup. It was fun being in a specialty store for the first time in months. There were lots of customers and the atmosphere was lively. Almost made me want to buy something for myself. I ended up having a chat with the store owner about snowboard sizing and cost. Definitely outside my budget. I tend to gravitate towards more affordable habits. I’d love to learn violin, for example, but that price tag...

I’ve caught up on Amazon’s The Boys, and now I’ll have to wait a week between each episode. I’ve seen lots of poor reviews from people complaining about not being able to binge-watch the show, but I honestly prefer it. Having weekly episodes keeps me from getting sucked in and losing entire days, gives me something to look forward to, and makes me feel more connected with the world. Having a routine for the entertainment I consume gives me a sense of comfort.

On a similar note, I started playing Death Stranding again last night and while I still feel on edge about having so much to do, it was nice to have something purely enjoyable to spend time on. I’ll try to leave myself a bit of time each day to do something recreational that I really enjoy. I think it’ll be healthier than two times as much mindless time-wasting every day.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 22 - Th - Oct 1

Today was my weekly drive-to-campus-for-my-one-in-person-class day. So I did that. Otherwise, I didn’t socialize much and didn’t really want to. Just want to keep my head in the game.

In direct contradiction to that statement, I spent another couple hours playing clicker games again late this afternoon. I did so while listening to lecture, so it wasn’t like it was the most ill advised use of time, right?... Wrong, cut the nonsense. No more mindless time wasting. More focused work, more rest, and more mindful enjoyment of meaningful things in-between. That’s my new consumption mission-statement.

I couldn’t restrain myself earlier and ended up almost hitting my 30m time limit on YouTube. I don’t even remember what I watched. I only know that I did it to distract myself and let my brain unwind. In the end, I somehow managed to spend almost (5hrs) on my phone today. Regrettable. Even so, I got a few things done. I went through e-mails and organized a few of my course resources. And for the first time, I actually sat and watched through most of my Econ lecture videos for the week (1.5hrs), rather than just relying on the text. Speaking of which, I’ve been reading bits of the textbook every day. Pacing myself is really turning out to be the way to go when it comes to absorbing more detailed info.

Lastly, I spent the evening redecorating a bit. I found a pretty large wall hanging left outside someone’s apartment for free and genuinely liked the looks of it, so I brought it in and hung it up. I also hung up a shelf to display some of the small items I’d tossed into my closet over a year ago. I figure that there’s no use keeping things I don’t use, so I’ll display everything and just get rid of what I don’t enjoy. I’m continuing to get rid of one item every day, so I’m more than making up for any new things that I’m buying.

No monetary purchases again today.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 21 - W - Sept 30

Healthy prioritization of consumption was not something I achieved today, or at least that’s how it felt. As I’ve mentioned, over the past few weeks I’ve been experiencing tons of highly-detailed, loud stimuli, and absorbing as much useful, high quality information as I could. Because of this, however, I’ve clearly become a little burnt out, and it’s showing.

I met with just my Web Design small group and professor today to look over our projects to assess progress and get feedback, but I clearly hadn’t gotten as much done as I could have. The prof. even commented on how tired another student and I both looked. Still, it was nice to meet and communicate in smaller numbers and more casually/openly. That kind of environment appeals to me a lot more that large classes often do (when I’m in the mood to be actively productive that is).

Back to unhealthy consumption, I spent the following (3hrs) (12-3) playing mindless clicker games on Armor Games again. It’s a habit I had when I was younger, and it’s similar to a lot of the time-sinks/mind-traps I fall into these days. It provides constant, low-effort, instant gratification, a false sense of value, and is conducive to addiction and distraction (sounds familiar... *cough* YouTube *cough*). I think the sudden realization that three hours had passed helped me snap back to reality.

I set up a second Google Home in my bathroom (the first being in my bedroom), which I’d been sent for free because of my YouTube Premium subscription. That will allow me to listen to music while showering and shaving, as I do on my phone almost every day, but without having to charge anything and with the benefit of higher sound quality (which I’m coming to appreciate more and more these days).

The highlight of my day (within the realm of consumption-focused-introspection) was when I realized a new mental response I’ve developed over the past several days. Remember when I set that 30m daily time limit on my YouTube app? Now, roughly 4/5 times I open my phone and habitually navigate to the app, I am reminded of this limit, and simply exit (or do just a quick browse). It’s helped me cut back on needless consumption of mindless entertainment. Now I just have to make sure that clicker games don’t replace it.

I did not make any purchases today.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 20 - Tu - Sept 29

Today, neither of my classes (online) were meeting, so that gave me some time for some much-needed relaxation. I spent that time “relaxing” in just about the most self-harmful way I could have though. I’d been looking through a flash-game website that I’m supposed to redesign for one of my projects and ended up playing (~4hrs) of mindless time-wasting games on there. It’s something I used to do a lot of during middle school and high school and I quickly fell back into the old habit. I still feel terrible about it, like I wasted my time, my brain power, and the chance to relax in a health way.

For dinner, we ordered Sotarol from Doordash ($15). Ordering food is a habit we’ve gotten into doing whenever we have someone visiting, and I imaging we’re sinking a lot of money into it. On the upside, I did have some time to properly relax and socialize most of the afternoon. It was refreshing. I tried to do some coursework and readings after, but just couldn’t find the energy to focus. Maybe tomorrow.

I had a strange itch to run over to Target after dinner tonight, and some of what I read in Atomic Habits is telling me that there might be a stimulus I’m unaware of that’s triggering that itch. Oh well. I went anyway, to buy myself a power strip ($20 +$7), and wound up buying some shaving foam ($1.89) and a kitchen sink caddy ($7) for organizing/keeping things clean. I wouldn’t consider either of these two latter purchases to be impulse buys, as I run our of one and had been wanting to buy the other for months. I had no trouble resisting buying unneeded things today, and I’m proud of that. Going to keep up the effort.

A few other notes: I saw an amazing 60′s Thunderbird in great condition sitting in the parking lot and just had to stop to take a pic. One of my dad’s favorites. Also, I’ve just noticed that I didn’t watch any YouTube at all on my phone today, so I think that 30m limit I created in my phone’s settings is working out pretty effortlessly for me.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 19 - M - Sept 28

Today was a long, busy, exhausting day, and I’m not sure I can recall all of it. After my morning class, I had to rush out the door and head to campus to grab my drawing portfolio, which I’d left there in March, before the pandemic started. A lady in the office went and grabbed it for me and we ended up having a really pleasant (20m) chat about how work and life are currently going and how the world’s adapting. It was nice to finally have the chance to talk with a stranger just for fun.

I then drove over to the house of a former group member to pick up a bunch of drum’s we’d had in storage. I stopped by McDonalds on the way to practice and got myself two McChickens ($1.50 x 2) and a McMilkshake ($3) at the McDrive-thru. I did a lot of driving today and , due to feeling stressed, wanted to drown out my thoughts with something. I listened to a bunch more of Atomic Habits, but had a bit of trouble listening to/retaining some of the info. Oh well. I stopped to fill up my gas tank on the way home. Ended up spending ($32.79 on 16 liters).

Feeling beat and overstimulated in the evening, I flopped into bed and spent a while (30m) browsing through my Instagram feed and the stories of people I follow. I saw some cool stuff and, honestly, it didn’t feel like a hug waste of time. I generally stay away from social media (YouTube aside), but I get the impression that if I carefully curated what comes into my feed, it might be a good source of motivation, information, and meaningful entertainment. We’ll see. While browsing, I experienced something rare. For the first time in a while, I saw an ad for a new product that almost instantly sold me on the idea. It was a humorous and informative video ad for a company that makes and sells dress shirts/pants/socks/shoes that are breathable, water repellant, flexible, and durable, similar to athletic wear. I thought for sure they’d be expensive, but the prices were amazingly low! It seems like an extremely practical buy, and depending on what reviews say about the quality, this may be my potential go-to for the next time I need to buy formal wear.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 18 - Su - Sept 27

I started the day off with some rigorous work. I had a bunch of deadlines for one class last night and I had a ton more for another class tonight. I mostly had to rush through all the homework modules on Cengage/Mindtap, but the instructor included enough info within the problem sets for me to learn from. Still, I'll have to get caught up on the reading soon.

I used aomething called the Pomodoro technique to get stuff done today, wherein you set a designated length of time (25m for me) and commit to focusing for the duration. You take 5m breaks between and take a longer break after several repetitions. I've tried this before, but always let things get in the way. I'll keep it in my back pocket for when I'm unfocused.

Late this afternoon, I began to feel absolutely overwhelmed by everything that I've had to do and all the stimuli around me. I used to have issues with overstimulatuon as a kid and it's been pretty bad again these past few weeks. I got to the point where I didn't want to see any text or video, hear any dogs barking or people talking to me, or have to clean or move anything. I felt I'd get ticked off at the literal drop of a needle. So, I grabbed some earplugs and locked away one of mysenses for a bit and then left them in as I continued to work for a while. This really helped and I think this consumer journal project has made me mindful enough to realize that I'm simply consuming too much.

Changing the topic, we decided to try out Everyplate, one of those order-a-weekly-crate-of-pre-proportioned-ingredients-for-a-set-of-meals deals. I'm the only one who enjoys cooking around here, and I simply don't have the time or energy to do it right now. I've been hesitant to suggest these sercices before, given their prices, but at ($5-10/meal), everyplate is much more cost-effective. It's not amazing as far as taste and portion size go, but it's pretty darn solid. It's a good chance for us to cut back on shopping time, excess food waste, and to learn new skills and eat new dishes. We're pretty excited avout it and we'll be ordering 3+ meals/week) indefinitely.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 17 - Sa - Sept 26

I slept in a while today, probably thanks to my poor decision to stay up late binge-watching TV. I feel like I'm becoming more mindful of my habits, yet I'm clearly slipping back into some bad ones. Looking back over my screen time the past few weeks, I've spent a lot on YouTube, so I decided to put a 30m daily time limit after which the app will be automatically locked. Of course, this wont stop me from watching at my PC, but I'm much more likely to get up from there to take breaks or to be reminded of my homework.

After finishing up my post for yesterday, I got sucked into browsing Tumblr for a good (20m). I found some cool stuff and I'm curious how the contents of my feed are determined. Feeling a little overwhelmed by all the things I consumed during my first few hours awake, so I went to take a 10m nap. That nap ended up lasting (4hrs, 2-6pm)...

After waking up, I had a small dinner, watched some YouTube (largely though-provoking entertainment/education) (40m), and then settled into my desk chair with a double-sized mug of decaf latte. I ended up getting a TON of work done in one sitting (~3hrs). I think today's events are telling me to get (consume!) more sleep when my body tells me to. At the same time though, I felt fried and wired after my homework session (couldn't sleep after), so I likely need to pace myself better as well.

[graphic-design-student]

Day 16 - F - Sept 25

Today was a fairly straight-forward day. I spent a lot of time on just a few things. I had no classes this morning and took the day off from doing coursework as it's my anniversary today.

We spent the afternoon together and exchanged gifts. Later, we ordered dinner from a recommended store on doordash (~$40), and watched some TV (1.5hrs). Once again, I had some sugary drinks today. I need to work on regulating that habit and not using others' presence as an excuse to indulge.

Just a bit ago, I watch the final two (out of eight) episodes of the Amazon Prime show I started last week. I was going to sleep then, but before I knew it, autoplay had led me 15min into the first episode of season two, so I just watched to the end (3hrs total).

[graphic-design-student]

Day 15 - Th - Sept 24

This post marks the half-way point of the consumption blog project for GDES 2399. I’m happy to say that keeping up with this has benefitted me in several ways. I’ve learned, for one, to better discipline myself to maintain a daily habit, but it’s also forced me to be extremely mindful of all my habits, all the stimuli I experience, and all the purchases I make on a day-to-day basis. Like a number of recent days, straight-forward consumerism was a fairly big part of today. It was also the first day of in-person class. There were only five of us students in our section (to keep social distancing effective), and we all had a pretty good, relaxing time working on ideas for our projects. Like I mentioned the other day, my brain seems to have gradually diffused and reset during the pandemic, and I’m finding I’m enjoying many things, socialization included, much more than I have in the past.

After class, I wandered around the graphic design building for a while, looking at student work that was being displayed on the walls (10m). I also took the time to enjoy campus in the nice weather, as I won’t be there many more times before it gets cold and the leaves fall. Also, I doubt I’ll ever see it this empty on a weekday again. Being able to go to campus without the stress of crowds, noise, or bad weather was an absolute joy and privilege.

On the ride home, and while running errands, I listened to another (~45m) of James Clear’s self-help audiobook, Atomic Habits. I have to say, I think this is a book for me. It’s concise, logical, intuitive, humble, and has its ideas organized and presented in the cleanest, clearest, most relatable way possible. I’m wondering if this might turn out to be the best ($15) I’ve ever spent. I’ll give more of my thoughts on its contents later, but for now, the basic introduction to the compounding results of small, daily actions/habits is taking root in my brain and causing me to really rethink various aspects of my life. It feels like the stars have really aligned with GDES 2399, microeconomics, some of the YouTube channels I’ve been watching recently, and this book.

The last major thing I did today was take a trip to Target (3pm, 1hr), where I bought various small gifts for a special someone. While wandering the store, I saw a bunch of signs advertising a week-long sale on a variety of goods, so I ended up downloading the Target Circle app to apply all of the coupons I could. That, along with the 5% savings from my Target RedCard, got me a huge overall discount. I’m not saying that some of the purchases there aren’t still overpriced, but hey, I saved all I could, so I’m satisfied. I have no idea why I didn’t download this app sooner. I just have to be careful that the savings don’t entice me to buy more. Speaking of being enticed to buy. I couldn’t help myself from stopping at Taco Bell on the way home (it’s right across the road from Target, which isn’t good for my willpower reserves). Today was hot, I was tired, and maybe I felt like rewarding myself (I’m not really sure), so I bought myself another Freeze (~$1). New flavor today. Drank it fast and mindlessly, like someone with an addiction. Hmm.