Post: #21

Sejal, Sarah and Sara, thanks for your encouragements!
Unfortunately, the contest has been postponed to 3-March due to some issues faced by the organizing chair (It is not easy to be an organizing chair...). Never mind, at least I still have the time to prepare myself for the contest.

Ish... I keep on procrastinating my preparation!! I should start off this weekend!!

By the way, today, I felt happy with 3 things:

My drawing was spread out in email
My friend told me that she receive a valentine's day greeting email, and she saw the picture that I drew earlier on appeared in the email!! She ask the sender from where he got the picture, and the sender said that he received from someone else too. Haha~ That means, my drawing was appreciated by someone so the person downloaded it and send to his / her friends, and the email was spread out.

Finished reading a book
I finally finished reading one book (Mandarin) --> NLP Fast Reading Technique (translation). It is to guide slow reader like me, how to read a book faster. I noticed that I now can read more than 30 pages in 10 minutes! Previously, I read only 8 ~ 10 pages in 10 minutes... So, to me, that is another achievement! It also indicated that I have achieved 1/3 of the goal --> read 3 books in one year.

I got closer with the Japanese classmate
I talked to the Japanese zither classmate more and more now. I volunteered myself to her in fixing the broken string of the zither on this Saturday. And, started from next week, every Thursday I will fetch her from her house to our zither learning center. ^^ I keep on learning to understand Japanese language and just now, she taught me the basic Japanese language~


With these achievements today, I felt gratitude that I have the chance to get closer to so many people and things around me for me to learn even more.

Post: #22

Hi Jaleen, good work with your achievements. Reading 30 pages in 10 minutes is great!

Post: #23

(02-07-2012 11:34 PM)jaleen3981 Wrote:  However, whenever I stated my goals, I always feel that I can either choose to achieve them or not. I do not force myself to achieve them as a must, just go for what I like. Thus, I keep on procrastinating the goals for years.

Now, I wish to post them here, not to announce to the world about my goals, but to give a little bit of pressure towards myself by telling myself that, "hey, someone is reading your thread, you must do as what you said!"

You're so right! It always gives more motivation to carry out plans if you're being held accountable That's why I love the PE challenges ^_^

Best of luck with your life goals. Finding a life partner is probably the hardest of all. The only thing you can do is attend events where your ideal mate might also go. And meet lots of new people you resonate with

BTW how does the speed-reading work? I remember NLP was about using certain words to make your mind think in certain ways?

"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable."

Post: #24

Ish, thanks. ^^

Jade, haha, yeah, it is not easy to find a life partner. I just hope that I could get a life partner that has the same interest with me. So, I always attend to the events that I like very much. Of course, it is not the only purpose for me to attend those events. I attend and I learn.

About the NLP, I don't have much knowledge in NLP. But towards what I understood from the book of speed-reading, it is more on subconscious, and also some sort about law of attraction too. Before we start to read a book, we must not give ourselves a negative thinking, saying that we cannot finish it fast, or cannot understand it fast if we read faster, etc.

Basically, we read a book twice or three times. Before we start for the first time, we have to look at the table of contents. When we look at the book title, we usually have an idea about the book and we know that we hope to understand certain things from the book. So, when we look at the table of contents, we should know which part of it is our must-know topics. Usually, each book contains only 20% of the contents that we want to know. So, do not expect ourselves to remember 100% of the contents from the book, unless we are the genius.

Then, we start to glance through the book, page by page in a very quick manner, one page takes about 3 ~ 4 seconds to glance through the contents. We let our subconscious to manage and filter the contents of the book based on what we should know from the book. In fact, the important contents have flown into our mind when we are doing the first round reading with our subconscious, although we don't really go through the meaning of each word.

After finishing the first round reading, we have a better idea of what are the contents and the content flow of the book, then we will go through the second round reading. This time, we will read with our consciousness, and be more aware when we come to the contents of the must-know topics. Because it is the second time reading, the contents will flow into our minds better this time.

If after finishing the second round reading, we still cannot figure out the ideas of the book, then we can go through for the third round reading. This round, we will only read through the first two or three lines of the opening of each small topic title to find out the keywords of the contents of the particular topics. If we found out that the topic is the main topic that we must know, then we will start reading the content again. In this round, we read using 50% of both consciousness and subconscious.

After reading the book, since we have gone through 2 or 3 rounds of reading, we should have the full idea of the book's contents. For those that we know, we can try to draw out a hierarchy of the topics to relate the contents of the book. When we say draw, it is encouraged that we draw it out in our mind instead of drawing out on paper. That is to train our memory, train the brain cells. If we really have no confidence on our memories, then we can draw it out on a piece of paper.

Also, second method, in order to help ourselves to remember, after reading the book, we could explain to other people on what we have read (Just like what I'm doing now...). If we know that we want to tell other people about the contents, we will do our best to remember the main points as much as possible.

And the last method, we can imagine the scene as if we are the main character， what we can see, hear, smell, touch or taste. This is to help us in remembering the contents when we are reading the book for the second round.

This is what I understood from the book. I read the book using this method as well during the progress. Although the book said that we can read a book in 10 minutes, but I still used up more than 1 hour to complete reading this book. After all, I feel that I can really remember the contents well. So, I feel that this method is a good method in reading.

Post: #25

Interesting...at first glance it sounds like it would take a long time and you would not actually have read much. But I might try it with this book I kinda quit reading - maybe pick up something relevant to me from it

Do you apply this technique to books of certain length or any book?

"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable."

Post: #26

Jade, yup, I'm now applying this technique on the second book that I'm reading currently. I haven't completed it, as I usually read before / after I have breakfast, provided I don't chit chat with my parents. So, if I would to combine all my reading times, it would be around 30 minutes of reading, and I almost finish the book for the second round.

Post: #27

Now, it's time to review my last week's performance, either based on my goals or my extra achievements. I guess I will do the same for weekly review to see how I perform in every week.

Last week's performance
Achievements based on my goals

1. Finished reading the first book.
2. Drank at least 2 liters of water daily.
3. Exercised everyday because of 21DFC, and I hope that this habit will continue even after 21DFC.
4. Meditate almost everyday before I go to sleep, and I can feel the fantasy feeling as if I'm flowing in the air~~ XD
5. Paid off for the zither. I will get my new zither on March~~
6. Drew 2 pictures to express my life / thoughts of a month.
   • Happy Valentine's Day
   • My Facebook Nowadays...
     
7. Wrote a blog post about a research - Pomodoro Technique (I got to know about this from Sarah's thread)
8. Learned some simple Japanese words. I plan to record all the Japanese vocabularies into a note book.
   

Extra achievements

1. My waist reduced one inch.
2. Start using a new notebook (real notebook, not a computer notebook...), which is mainly to jot down some notes, ideas, reminders, etc when I'm away from computer.
3. Start reading a new book.
   

Felt happy for

1. My drawing was spread out in emails!
2. I went to my Japanese classmate's house and I got to know more about her, a 70-year-old strong lady~~ ^^
3. Seeing my students' attitudes have changed to be better as compared to last semester~
4. I start to feel that I like reading a lot, feel happy that I can complete reading a book faster and still can remember what I have read. ^^
   

What I failed

1. Practicing zither for more than 2 hours (I didn't even practice it for a single minute... I just practice longer time when I reach the music center).
2. Failed to prepare my speech for contest as I have written in the earlier post.
   

Overall, I felt happy with with my performance except the 2 failed goals... I must do it this week. No matter what, find time to make it! >.<

What I plan for this week

1. Finish reading the second book.
2. Go for a swim or hike in weekend.
3. Practice zither for at least 2 hours!!!
4. Start preparing the speech!!!
   

Post: #28

Yes!! I have completed 21DFC!!

Although I didn't exercise fully one hour every exercise session daily, but at least I did my best to continue this as a habit to exercise everyday, at least 15 minutes!!

From the challenge, I got to know that, as long as we know what we want firmly, we can complete the task. Now, I would say that I really exercise everyday, at least doing some stretching if I really do not have much time on that day. It comes with the mantra from myself: Busy can never be the excuse!!

I will continue this challenge as my personal daily activity. At least 15 minutes of physical activity every day, can be slow walking, can be jogging, cycling, swimming or, I can also go hiking if I can get any partner to go with me. I feel that whether I sweat after the activity is not the concern, the main point is that I do some activities to keep my body active, and be in a healthy situation.

Of course, I will still go with my plan on every Thursday: Go to gym in my college for one hour, then take a bath and then go to zither class. I guess I will enjoy workout in gym / go to have a walk in the park.

Thanks for the sharing from all the members that joined 21DFC!! I learned a few of new exercises from you all!!

Post: #29

Time flies, it comes another weekend. This whole week, my life was like a roller coaster. I kept on busy, but still I managed to do some exercises for 21DFC.

Report for this week's performance:
Achievements based on my goals

1. I finished reading my second book!! - What is written in the notebooks of successful people? (Again, it is a Chinese book)
2. Drink 2 liters of water everyday. Felt like having sore-throat this morning, but now I'm feeling OK.
3. I have practiced half an hour of zither, then interrupted by my friend's call asking me to go for hiking.
4. Continue to exercise everyday, even though 21DFC has ended on 23-February.
5. Still, meditate almost every night. Can see something bright in front of me sometimes.
6. Learn a few of Japanese words in the journey of fetching my Japanese zither classmate to the class on the past Thursday. I recorded them down before I forgot how to pronounce the words correctly. I also learned some simple sentences for communication purpose.
   • I go to your house now. OK? - いま私は貴方の家に行きます、いいですか？
   • I play with my friends. - 私は友達と遊ぶ
   • I drive my car. - 私は自動車を運転する
     
7. Weight 75kg this morning... I hope that it will maintain or reduce, but not increase again.
   

Extra achievements

1. A friend of mine asked me to be the zither teacher on 7-Mar. Still asking for details, whether it is on every Wednesday, or it is only a one-day teaching... This will be the first time I teach zither!! Excited and nervous!!
2. Managed to come out a few of up-to-standard questions as quiz questions for my students.
3. Explored on the usage of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 - A great tool that I like so much!! You can type wherever you want on the space and move the section around; If you have a pen tablet, you can even write, sign or draw wherever you want on the space too!! Below is a screen shot of my OneNote, which I use to keep my data and my reading records. (I read Chinese books most of the time, so I write my reading details in Chinese too) You can see that I wrote some words (meaning: I like this book very much!!) on it. I can also drag the handwriting and picture around as needed. Of course, I can set password for some sections which are not accessible by other people.
   

Click here to view the picture, just in case the picture is not shown.

What I failed

1. Practicing zither for at least 2 hours! (I practiced only half an hour... although it's improving. I would continue practicing tomorrow!)
2. Go for a swim or hike. I did go for hike with my friends, but by the time I reached the destination, it rained... I ended up exercised at home again...
3. Start preparing the speech!! (I will do it tomorrow, still scratching for the topic to be presented)
   

Overall, I give myself a rate of 6 for last week's performance. Why? Because I just achieved 1.5 of my plan: completed reading the second book and practiced zither for half an hour.

Reflected back what was my mistake... I spent too much time surfing online, either to read blogs, to surf through facebook, to view a lot of artwork from DeviantArt.com, etc. At first, I thought to limit my daily online period, but due to my work, I will need to do some research online prior to my lectures... Maybe, I should train myself in concentrating for online information searching, not to distracted by other website / information like facebook, blogs, etc.

Next week's plan

1. Start practicing zither a much as possible, as I agreed to teach zither on 7-March.
2. Visit to my best friend when she is still in confinement.
3. I know I will be busy in marking tests... I will have to mark the answers of 2 tests from different subjects...
   

All right, I will keep going!! ^^

Post: #30

You are doing great
OneNote is one of my favourite apps as well. Not only for my personal data, my favourite quotes, inspiring pics, book summaries and also my lifebook. It's also a great notetaking app - I usually take a lot of notes from the taskbar shortcut when reading or browsing or working, only problem is that that I still have lots of unfiled notes to read/classify

Post: #31

Wow!! Amazing!!
You've done so much since the last time I've visited your journal!
Good for you!! Keep it up!!

Post: #32

(02-27-2012 12:32 AM)Ish Wrote:  You are doing great
OneNote is one of my favourite apps as well. Not only for my personal data, my favourite quotes, inspiring pics, book summaries and also my lifebook. It's also a great notetaking app - I usually take a lot of notes from the taskbar shortcut when reading or browsing or working, only problem is that that I still have lots of unfiled notes to read/classify

Hi Ish, yes, last time I used it to record meeting minutes, and note taking too. I will explore it for more usage when I have the time.

(02-27-2012 07:33 PM)Scorpionsage Wrote:  Wow!! Amazing!!
You've done so much since the last time I've visited your journal!
Good for you!! Keep it up!!

Thanks, Sejal!
I will keep it going, and the same for you!

Post: #33

Hi, Jaleen. I have noticed your avatar before but I didn't know you actually drew it. Very cute! It seems like we have a few artists here.

I have been interested in learning about speed reading techniques as well. I was a little put off from it in the past because I always thought that reading something quickly will lower the retention rate of what we are able to remember. There are probably techniques to get around that problem though.

Onenote is a very cool tool. I don't have MS Office but I have used it in the past. It's great for general note taking, journaling, creating a life handbook, project planning, or just about anything else that requires organizing a lot of information. I haven't found an open source equivalent though. I usually use Evernote for important notetaking.

Post: #34

Jaleeen!!
I browse deviantart a lot too! The artworks are so good its too tempting
You meditate everynight? Thats so great! I'm sure it'll help you a lot!
You've been doing so great!!! Keep it up!
And Thanks for all your encouragement on my journal! You're such an angel!

Post: #35

I use Evernote for my life handbook It's apparently a free version of OneNote - I don't know, because I've never used OneNote, but it's fantastic to have everything in one place.

Jaleen, do you use Firefox? I was just reading what you were saying about having to be online for work, and not wanting to be distracted by other websites. Firefox has an extension you can download called LeechBlock which lets you block certain websites for set periods of time. I found it very helpful to kick my 'I'm bored of work, let's check Facebook every 10 minutes' habit

日本語の勉強に頑張ってね！ (Good luck with your Japanese studies) I studied Japanese for 4 years, and have since forgotten so much of it. I need to get back into it

You're doing so well - good luck for the rest of this week!

Post: #36

wow thats a great goal list jaleen mam( i am a student).Inspired!!!

Post: #37

Hey!!

Do have a deviantart account?? Gimme a link to your profile and I'll add you on my watch-list

Post: #38

Hi Matt, I have downloaded the Evernote application but yet to install. I will try it out and choose the one that most suitable for me. Currently, I'm using OneNote and Excel to keep track my work and daily life.

I use OneNote to keep track my to-do list, reading list, online payment receipts, etc. I also use Excel to keep track my daily expenses, which is a money manager template downloaded from vertex42. With the expenses recorded, I can estimate how much I should spend from my monthly salary. I think it is a good practice. ^^

Hi Nimi, yeah, I like a lot of artwork from Deviant Art!! They are just so amazing!!

I meditate almost every night, but not for long time, probably half an hour because I usually wake up quite early, so I don't feel to stay up too late. Thanks for your encouragement too!!

Hi Sarah, wow~~You know Japanese language!! I ask my brother to teach me in speaking most of the time. I hardly remember all the writings... >.< Up till now, I just can remember あ、い、う、え、お　=.="

Hi Honey, thanks for dropping message. I hope you can get the idea of what to be posted into you blog. ^^

Hi Sejal, sure, no problem. Here is my DA profile. I seldom draw initially, until my younger brother bought a pen tablet for me. **feeling grateful for that present from my younger brother**

Post: #39

In my college, tomorrow will start the week 5 of this semester. Another 2 weeks, the semester will end.

Now, come to my report of the week:
Achievements based on my goals

1. I finish reading my third book, which I have achieved my quota of reading this year!! XD I can't imagine that I could read 3 books in 3 weeks!! What an amazing record I ever have!
2. Still, I drink 2 liter of water daily to ensure that I get myself away from sickness.
3. This week, I finally manage to practice 2 hours of zither!! ^^ I revised in playing the old songs, as I will start coaching people in zither class. I will do my best to maintain the record, and I'm now using the metronome while practicing zither.
4. Yes, I continue to exercise. On Thursday, I still go to the gym center in my college to exercise for one hour, then go to attend zither class. Sometimes, I don't exercise with all sweated, but I do some stretching as usual.
5. Yes, I still meditate almost every night. Sometimes, I lay on my bed to meditate then I fall asleep half way... I was too tired in this whole week, busy in marking testsssss.....
6. I learned again, a few of Japanese words. ^^
   • Monday - げつようび
   • Tuesday - かようび
   • Wednesday - すいようび
   • Thursday - もくようび
   • Friday - きんようび
   • Saturday - どようび
   • Sunday - にちようび
   • Today - きょう
   • Tomorrow - あした
   • Yesterday - きのう
   • The day before yesterday - おととい
   • The day after tomorrow - あさって
   • There is no class next week. -来週の授業はありません。
     
7. I drew the first picture of the month March - I exercise almost daily, take care of my diet, eat more vegetables and less meat, but after 2 months... my weight is still the same... =.="
   
   Click here if the picture is not shown.
   

Extra achievements
I achieved all my 3 goals set in the last week.

1. Embark on 2 types of note taking in my daily life. I use physical notebooks instead of using computer to take down the notes.
   • Taking note for my work. What I need to teach everyday, so that I don't miss out any important point for the students. I let them hands-on in creating webpage and explain on the theory part while doing the hands-on, instead of keep on talking about the theory concepts to them.
   • I jot down all my daily work in another notebook, from the beginning of a day until the night, what I do, what I eat, what I see, what I think, what I feel, etc. It is to keep a record so that I can update and see how I move towards my goals. I hope it works for me to achieve my goals...
     
2. By using Pomodoro technique, managed to finish marking tests in the estimated time with full concentration without browsing other websites or doing anything else.
3. I paid a visit to my best friend, who is now in confinement. Wish her be a happy mother always!
4. I participated in the table topic contest in Toastmaster Club Contest. Although I got the first runner up, but I will represent the club to attend to the Area level contest to compete with the rest of the clubs in my area. That is because the champion is not available to participate in the Area level contest.
   

What I failed

1. During the month end of February, I noticed that I over spent in February, until I didn't have enough money to pay for my home loan. I will need to carefully plan for what the necessary things needed this month.
   

By keeping track of my daily expenses, I will be able to know all the sorts of expenses. Last month, I over spent because I paid for my new zither, and I bought a lot of books in last month.

What made me happy

1. My students' attitudes change since the last semester. I'm teaching the same batch of students since the last semester. From what I can see this semester, they are more committed to the study this semester. I will be facing them again in the next semester for the last time, so I hope that they will maintain the momentum until they graduate.
2. Even though it was a last minute preparation for the club contest mentioned above, but we finally made it to be a success!
   

Next week's plan

1. Set question for test 2
2. Update a blog post for my community club.
3. Update with the brief content of the 2 books that I have just read.
4. Save RM200 for March.
5. Practice zither for the songs of the first level zither class so that I can coach the new zither students.
   

Just in case anyone that doesn't what a zither is... I found a picture of a girl presenting zither. How I wish I could be like her, a "slim" lady presenting zither...

Click here is the picture is not shown.

Post: #40

Today, I have done something wrong...

Last week, we had the speech contest, and a member of my club won the champion. Because of under age issue, the champion should be not eligible to enter to the next level's contest. But I wished to let her in for the next level's contest, so I referred to a senior member and see if we can let her in for the next contest. The senior member told me that it is OK to let the champion go in for the next level. Thus, I decided to let her join. In the end, the contest chair person seemed to get angry because of this issue.

Although the contest chair person didn't pin point to me about my mistake, but the contest chair person seemed like wanted to bring this matter up to the high level people in the coming meeting, because the senior member holds a high level role in the club. According to the contest chair person, he didn't agree that the senior member suggested to let the champion join the contest, but should ask me to refer to the contest chair person, so the senior member has misused the right and authority.

I know that I have done something wrong, and I knew that I shouldn't have decided to let the champion joining the next level's contest. But, I didn't mean to pull the senior member into trouble. I just hope that the champion contestant can go to the next level as an experience. I have told the champion contestant that even if she win in the next level's contest, she will not be able to proceed to the third level again because of the age issue, and the champion contestant has understood the situation too...

I just hope not to bring this issue up to the high level meeting to pin point on the senior member. I hope everything to be fine. I hope everything to be peaceful. I hope that the contest chair person knows what to say in the meeting so that he will not make the senior member to feel embarrass...

I will post up my this week's performance tomorrow...