Keeping up to date with my monthly reports, as usual, covering some highlights from the previous month - lessons learned, income, personal expenses, fitness, and other useful resources.
Why monthly reports?
I feel I really needed to start writing these reports a while ago. The good thing is that at least I have started now.
Monthly reports help to reflect better, feel responsibility, and keep myself in check every month.
Lifestyle optimization is impossible without tracking. By tracking your activities, habits, and time, you can most definitely become more aware and conscious about what are you doing, when, and most importantly - raise the question why.
I don't want to spend my time in a miserable way or in a way how society expects me to live it. Since design is what I do, I think the best way to live your life is by designing it yourself.
If you're not going to design life yourself, someone else will do it for you.
May was good. I mean really good. I stopped a bit to re-think what's going on with my career, my tempo, education process, and work.
Physically I felt very well, and this is the feeling I have been forgotten. Following the allergy tests from April, all other health related matters kinda settled out, which is great.
Design-wise, I've been putting my hours into re-design of an app of a well-known Lithuanian brand. I feel interested and involved, and put a lot of thought into how things supposed to look and work. This will be an on-going project for June-July, I guess.
Finally, I got selected for UX mentorship course called "UX & Hello" which will took 6 weeks. Soooo excited for this opportunity to learn from the best designers in the country!
Income
May wasn't the best for my money but I let myself to live and enjoy a little bit more than usual.
The good thing is that the stable salary is flowing in every month, and my work here is to get out some money for savings each month now. The goal is 30% savings of the month's income.
Personal expenses
May was kinda similar to April, I'd say - not very lean.
I wasn't able to save that much - spent some random money on my car's insurance, and allergy tests. Also, some food supplements, and light clothing. Also, a few concerts (the Cinematic Orchestra was amaaaaaazing!).
Must do a better job on saving money next month, however, I already know that I need to take care of my car, and this extra cash will probably go there.
On the other hand, I didn't spend too much on food and entertainment money, and dating, and random stuff, which is good.
Fitness & Nutrition
May was the best month in terms of NOT feeling physical pain in my body (since my injury in mid-November).
I woke up one Monday and felt freaking AMAZING. Strange since I got used to a different type of feelings, but whoa... it lasted a week, and every day was great in terms of energy, and mood, too.
May marked 5th month working on my back injury (spinal hernia), and I got better. However, I want to continue to work on all this in the gym, just to be confident enough.
Bad and good news: my coach and me are splitting ways starting 1st of June. She got a new job and decided to take a new path, and I'm super happy for her. Need to find a new coach tho.
Up until June, my fitness pattern is staying the same - I'm hitting the gym twice per week with my coach Kristina, and getting a massage once per month, too. Also, my every day starts with yoga & stretches for 30-40 mins.
Fasting. Obviously, there's no need to change what's working for you. That's why fasting is still my daily nutrition pattern. I'm keeping a usual 16:8 pattern, meaning that I don't consume any calories for at least 16 hours a day, and have my 'eating window' for remaining 8 hours.
Productivity
May was productive. Well, somewhat "okay in the middle." Had some great weeks, and some way less productive days. Overall I feel better than in April, which is a good sign.
I put quite a lot of time in May into freelance project - re-design of a popular app. Finally, it looks like the whole thing will move into development phase in June/July. This helps me to get better working with Sketch, and to learn some smart routines.
Also, I kinda lost my touch on working by using Pomodoro Technique (focusing on deep work for 25 minutes, and then resting for 5 minutes). Just too much distractions - work related stuff, Gram, chats.. will definitely try to turn these away in June. A MUST!
Another thing I'm not too happy about is that we are not working anymore with my peak performance partner (more on the concept in previous monthly reviews). He was traveling a lot in end of April and May, and we kinda stopped without saying a word. Need to set it up again in June tho, I liked the responsibility concept - it really does help to do more.
I tried to continue to stay on top of my routines, and this pays off. However, in general, I think I lost my touch on my routines - if I compare myself to myself 6 months back. However, a lot of things changed - I changed jobs, some side-projects came in my way, Summer came (with lots of distractions, obviously), physically I felt not the best, which affects my persistence, and motivation.
But still, pushing myself to follow my routines every day. A lot of willpower is needed.
I found a pattern tho, that I'm usually unable to follow-through on (1) reading, and sometimes (2) meditation + (3) gratitude practices on the days I'm hitting the gym before work. These will be the days with my extra focus for the next month.
Books, articles & resources
I read 2 books in May (13 in 2019):
Get Some Headspace by Andy Puddicombe
My review: If you're into spirituality and meditation, this is a must-read for you. Andy tells his own story of dropping out of a college and moving to Asia to find what's going on with his mind. Why it is so intense, and why he can't concentrate and think clearly?
The cool thing is that Andy went through a lot of different monasteries, met a lot of meditation masters, and experienced everything himself. From all this, he wrote "Headspace" where he tries to put all the concepts in a clear, human way, adjusted to the 21st century.
Also, he clears a lot of myths and misconceptions of meditation. The follow-up on his life is Andy's business - he launched an app that goes by the same name "Headspace."
Only 10 minutes per day... this truly helps! Good both for beginners in meditation, and for amateurs who want to keep it consistent.
The Non-designer's Design Book by Robin P. Williams
My review: No matter if you're in design or not, this is an essential read which covers the main design principles - contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity. Each one is explained in higher detail with great examples and a bit of humor.
Also, I found this book as a great cheat-sheet to learn typefaces matching. Sans serif, serif... what? It explains all of them and gets you the main idea of how to mix-and-match.
Oh, and never forget.. the CONTEXT IS KING.
Articles worth reading
It's a cognitive ability, and it can be developed. However, personally, I think some people are more self-aware than others to start with, and exactly these people can build way more on top of that.
Others... well, they need to find something about this cognitive state from someone else. They usually do not meditate, and do not reflect on their life, which makes it way harder to become self-aware.
However, if you are self-aware, you have already won.
Stop copying the most trending shots on Dribbble. Here are some tips how can you get better at spotting good and bad design decisions by deconstructing what you see on the screen, and mindfully thinking WHY they did something in the way you see it there.
It's also somehow around self-awareness, and being able to stop yourself and think.
We have all been there, I guess. A worthy read from one of my favorite bloggers - the Angry Therapist.
Quotes of the month
"It is often easier to make an enthusiasm into a career then to become enthusiastic about a career dictated by others"
"The quantity of work is much less Important than it’s quality and it’s quality depends on self-direction"
"It is very difficult, and always wasteful, to achieve something worthwhile without enjoying it."
"Don’t ever let your house have anything that you don’t know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."
Music finds
Every month I put up a playlist from some new tracks I discovered and also some good oldies I remembered from way back. Enjoy:
3 great albums came out in May: YG's "4REAL 4REAL" (which is a tribute to Nipsey), Tyler's "IGOR", and "Flamagra" by Flying Lotus. Well, also some more worth noticing - "Escape from New York" by Boast Coast (from Flatbush Zombies), and "Apollo XXI" by Steve Lacy.
One of my new great finds is Lucky Day who released his debut album "Painted."
May flicks
Here's a new section - my fav flicks I took during the month. Enjoy.
Thanks for reading,
V.
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