Happy Tuesday!

One of the habits I wanted to build in 2023 is to introspect more often.

While daily journalling helps me grapple with life’s events, zooming out to reflect in weeks or months helps me be patient about my efforts and gives me a better picture of how I’m doing.

Today, I’d like to share with you my simple review of January 2023:

• Intentions
• Reflection
  • How did I spend my time?
  • What worked?
  • What didn’t, and how can I do better?

🗺️ Intentions

To me, there are different definitions of “intention”:

• In long-term planning, “intention” = guiding principles that I strive to live by
• In short-term planning, “intention” = things that I want to manifest in my life

A month is “short-term” to me, so I usually set action-oriented goals for my monthly intentions.

I didn’t set any intentions for January because I knew I’d be moving countries yet again, and settling down—physically and academically—can be challenging.

⏰ How did I spend my time?

I wanted to be as objective as possible, so according to my Google Calendar, these were my top three activities:

1. Settling down physically (grocery shopping, meal prepping, exploring the city) and academically (preparing for class, doing assignments)
2. Mass-applying to internships
3. Building my app, JourneyOS

✨ What worked?

This is where I celebrate my wins:

• My cooking schedule is manageable. I meal prepped every 1.5 weeks with ingredients that I liked. My food isn’t mind-blowing in taste, but it gives me the nutrients I need.
• I managed to publish this newsletter every Tuesday. I attribute this consistency to my accountability mechanisms (my roommates read this newsletter, oops). I also had a more compelling “why” for this newsletter than my previous endeavors.

👀 What didn’t work, and how can I do better?

1) I’m autopiloting through my classes. I don’t necessarily detest them, but I don’t love them either. I feel like a noob, especially in courses with a lot of readings, which discourages me from preparing for class.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do except practice the way I skim and digest academic papers.

2) I wasn’t consistent in setting aside time to write this newsletter. When the deadline approached, I sat down at a cafe in my neighborhood and “grinded stuff out,” which was unsustainable.

I should look into how others write their newsletters and adapt their systems to fit my schedule.

✍️ Intentions for February

• Create a system for this newsletter so that I don’t have to write at 4 am on Tuesdays (like right now)
• Learn how to write short-form content and turn them into long-form content
• Finish any lingering internship applications

Reviews are a powerful way of tracking your progress objectively.

You may find that you did more than you expected—or much less than desired. Both are okay!

That’s what frequent check-ins are for: life happens, and you just need to "right the ship" as soon as you realize you’re going off-course.

Also, I really started writing this at 4am, so please pardon any grammatical mistakes. Thank you <3