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TFF CONSISTENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY COLLECTIVE TRACKER

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

bornoim

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ZF Lee

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Update from 2/11-8/11/2020 (Mon-Sun)
GOALS
Wake up 8-9.30 AM DAILY

Woke up late on Monday and Tuesday (woke on 10AM+ those days)

Sleep around 11 PM-12.30 AM DAILY
Slept up late on Monday, Saturday, Sunday way beyond 12.30AM

Daily Copywriting practice
Missed on Sat and Sun

2X supplement intake a day
MET all days except Sat and Sun

Bible/prayer journal
Only did for Mon and Tues. Almost the entire week went null.

Books read
None

Networking
Null



TAKEAWAYS
INVASION OF THE CAPSTONE

-As expected, my college capstone business plan project invaded all my habits.

Normally for group assignments, consistent meetings and WhatsApp follow-ups, and a decent work attitude and working brains of the members would ensure business as usual.

But that just isn't the case.

Looking at the current essay parts my group members sent me, I just want to become an alcoholic looking at the amount of editing work I'll have to do.

I keep asking myself how much I could have done better, to set stricter guidelines and frameworks for my members to follow.
Then I remember I'm actually not the group leader (she seems to have fallen asleep).
And I realise that there's a fine line between prepping systems for efficient teamwork and spoon-feeding.

I kept remembering Dan Kennedy's 'No BS Ruthless Management of People and Profits' book as a possible treatise on that matter, but I dunno if I'll have time to grab and read it.


PROCRASTINATION
- On a brighter note, all this work hasn't let me slide back into wasteful course-binging mode.
Unfortunately, there's many days I fell into procrastination mode...where I jump onto a YouTube binge to avoid the work I hate.

Don't get me wrong. The capstone is a very interesting project.
But the people's attitudes and mediocrity are giving me toxic feelings whenever I open the Drive and either find no work done or pig faeces.

I have no choice but to finish the project as fast and well (plus the extra editing and research work) as I can to stop this nonsense...but if my group mates start wondering why their peer-reviewed grades for the project suck, they can come see me.

Until the project is completed on the 16th (next Monday), I'll be taking a break from this habits tracker...


 

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bornoim

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ZF Lee

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Update from 17/11-22/11/2020 (Tues-Sun)
GOALS
Wake up 8-9.30 AM DAILY

Woke up late on Sunday (10.30am)

Sleep around 11 PM-12.30 AM DAILY
Slept up late on Sunday (12.50am)

Daily Copywriting practice
Met all days

1X supplement intake a day (I changed my brand of supplements, so I'll be dropping from 2X a day to only once a day)
MET all days

Bible/prayer journal
Did for all days except Thurs

Books read
1. Dan Kennedy's No BS Ruthless Management of People & Profits
Read until Chapter 7

2. Vince James The 12 Month Millionaire
Read until Chapter 3

Networking
Null



TAKEAWAYS
Was surprised my habits progress recovered significantly after finishing up with a bullcrap of a college capstone project.

Shitty group assignment members can be toxic demons.

Picked up Dan Kennedy's No BS Ruthless Management of People & Profits, and although it is a basic primer on dealing with employees, it outlined a few nuggets that I should have done to improve my group assignment experience:

1. Understanding that employees and employers (or leaders) will ALWAYS have different agendas.

In this case, the business owner will always care about the business, while the employees just worry about getting paid and having a decent working experience.

In my case, while I was always worried about perfecting the capstone business plan project, most of my group members just want to have good-enough peer feedback for a decent grade, so they just participated in stuff, even with their half-heartedness.

So I really should have some lower expectations, despite them being third-year students (shame)...and adjust accordingly.

2. Use a Personal Development Interview (PDI) approach by meeting with team members INDIVIDUALLY and REGULARLY to ask their opinions on ideas or problems they can solve.

What I didn't do that much was these individual sessions with the members.

The PDI approach could give them some leeway for growth and improvement that typical group meetings and reviews might stiffle, but then again, given their crappy work, I'd doubt if my college group members had decent attitudes for that.

There were times a few of the members refused to do even simple things like drawing charts on Google Docs, even though I showed them how to do it, claiming, ' It's so hard! I dunno!'


3.In regards to that, Dan also talked about not supporting complacency, such as continuous late and slackiness in the team.

Typically, you'd need to punish or fire recalcitrant asses, even though they may be 'decent' folks.

In my own case, when members just kept coming late, postponing or avoiding meetings, I should have put my foot down strictly. Maybe penalise them by stopping (valuable) work on my part or calling the professor directly to escalate.

But I wasn't the group leader, so that would result in clashes with her.
So I often wonder if we'd have a better scenario if I acted tougher.


There are more I read from the book, but I'm still reading the tome.
 
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Attachments

  • TFLF V.3 accountability tracker - 17-22_11.pdf
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ZF Lee

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Update from 23/11-29/11/2020 (Mon-Sun)
GOALS
Wake up 8-9.30 AM DAILY

Woke up real late around 10AM-ish on Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun

Sleep around 11 PM-12.30 AM DAILY
Slept late only once on Tuesday (12.40AM)

Daily Copywriting practice
Met all days except Saturday

1X supplement intake a day
MET all days

Bible/prayer journal
Did for all days except Sunday

Books read
None

Networking
New contacts: 1
Follow-ups: 1



TAKEAWAYS
-I had a string of mornings where I woke up real late, despite having alarms.
I think it's because I didn't have something exciting to wake up to...that whole week was consumed by prepping for a Derivatives online exam on Friday, the last of my Finance degree papers.

That's not to say I hate learning Finance. I just hated the general academic attitude with it...especially when I've had my lecturer rant the last study workshop on how college kids were asking for answers to his assignments and tests on Chegg.

But now the exam's done and over with, that got me thinking:
" Is there a positive habit I can chain or link waking-up with? A habit that even brings some happiness or traction to pep me up? Something I can just do right out of bed, and quickly?"

Some ideas that came to my head:

-Some push-ups. Good ol' exercise that can be done anywhere.

-Reading the financial news snippets, or checking on stock investments. I started buying some stocks recently, going the fundamentals route. The thing is there's always something to read or learn about how public companies earn their revenue or arrange for big deals...and such stories gets the brain going. Stock investing isn't always as direct as 'buy the hot tip!'

-Get a real good, but thick book to read a few pages of every morning. Probably my current reads of the Dan Kennedy book and Vince James might do for now.
 

Attachments

  • TFLF V.3 accountability tracker - 23-29_11.pdf
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bornoim

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ZF Lee

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Update from 30/11-6/12/2020 (Mon-Sun)
GOALS
Wake up 8-9.30 AM DAILY

Woke up on time on all days but Sunday

Sleep around 11 PM-12.30 AM DAILY
Slept on time within the range

Daily Copywriting practice
Met all days

1X supplement intake a day
MET all days

Bible/prayer journal
Did for all days except Saturday

Books read
Rayner Teo's The Ultimate Guide to Price Action Trading

It's a quick read, and talks about how you can use supports/resistance levels and some fundamental candlestick chart reading to identify WHERE to enter and exit

The real story behind why I picked up this technical analysis tome...I might share on the Rants thread or my own progress thread, cause its a big one.

Networking
New contacts: 0
Follow-ups: 0



TAKEAWAYS
The full story is too long to write here...its related to the stock market.
Basically, I got into the buzz of the stock market after putting in some excess cash, after my dad talked one many evenings on some shares he got.

And I had to strike up a daily practice of waking up in time for the market open, watch the morning session chart, check news and reading for a stock shopping list with ideal prices to buy into...which helped me wake up in the morning.

I'll cut down the entire story (will write about it soon) into the following takeaways:
- Even if you are buying a company to ride a trend or paradigm (eg 5G tech, big data, vaccines), make sure it has decent financials, like decent profit margins, good debt health and dividends and so on.

-For the financials, some ratios matter more than the others. For example 'unsold inventory' matter more for property companies, as unsold houses can be very costly.

Also, pay attention to the cashflow statements...and if their operating cashflow is bad, check out why.

-Find local forums where FOR SURE you'll know where most of the investors congregate to read charts or discuss what to buy or sell. Not all the chatter will be A+ material, but some may have some hints to do due diligence on, or warning signs of a mass panic-sell or smart money move.

It's not too different from listening to the marketmind for entrepreneurship.

-Set price levels to take profit at. Even good stocks, due to market sentiment or fundamentals, do not go up forever. I personally set 10, 15, 20% profit benchmarks.

-Know how to read candlestick charts to know when buyers are actually pushing up the price , or if sellers are fighting them down...and to know when you can enter into a buy or exit. Even if you aren't a daytrader, this can be helpful for regular investing.

Rayner Teo has some good vids and free books on that.
 
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  • TFLF V.3 accountability tracker - 30_11-6_12.pdf
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bornoim

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ZF Lee

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Update from 7-13/12/2020 (Mon-Sun)
GOALS
Wake up 8-9.30 AM DAILY

Woke up on time on all days but Friday (10.30AM)

Sleep around 11 PM-12.30 AM DAILY
Slept on time within the range except Sunday (1AM)

Daily Copywriting practice
Met all days except Mon and Sat

1X supplement intake a day
MET all days

Bible/prayer journal
Did for all days except Saturday

Books read
Invest like Koon Yew Yin book
Read until chapter on fundamental analysis

KYY is a founder of multiple companies in Malaysia like Gamuda...made a nice penny off the Hong Kong sellout when China took it back from the Brits, so he bought lots of wins on the cheap.

These days he's just writing blog articles arguing for Supermax's case when glove share prices are somehow slumping lol.

'Invest like Koon Yew Yin' is one of the few books I've found that covers both technical and fundamental broadly...I realise I hear most investors online only take to fundamental analysis, while technical analysis is left to day-traders. Oddly, he starts the book with technical analysis (e.g candlestick and MA) first, before fundamental, which may say something...

He also encourages 'concentrated investing', where you pick only 3 of the most high performing stocks in 3 different sectors to invest. Of course, that means you have to pick your companies to invest in VERY carefully.

However, he does recommend having up to a max of eight stocks in the portfolio

Found it for free on his blog.

Networking
New contacts: 0
Follow-ups: 0
 

Attachments

  • TFLF V.3 accountability tracker - 7-13_12.pdf
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ZF Lee

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Update from 14-20/12/2020 (Mon-Sun)
GOALS
Wake up 8-9.30 AM DAILY

Woke up on time on all days but Sunday (9.55am)

Sleep around 11 PM-12.30 AM DAILY
Slept on time within the range

Daily Copywriting practice
Met all days except Friday

1X supplement intake a day
MET all days

Bible/prayer journal
Did for all days except Mon, Fri, Sat

Books read
Invest like Koon Yew Yin book
Finished the whole book as I realised I had to rush my stock planning...in this time of the year as folks take profit before year-end, stock prices get jumpy

Takeaways
-I realised I have been spending an awful amount of time doing stock research and price-watching.

If I were a swing or day-trader, that would have been normal.
But I'm veering off Fastlane by now.

So, here's what I'll have to do to re-correct my time to do stock research and trading:
1. For the stocks I currently have on my portfolio, I'll wrap up my research on them in a few days (e.g. follow KYY's recommended ratio and target price analysis, something I didn't do thoroughly in the start)

2. Cut down my portfolio to 5-6 stocks. I can sell out 2-3 of my current counters by Christma or Chinese New Year, provided they hit their highs. I entered most of my current positions are rather un-optimal prices, as I didn't read the candlestick properly back then.

3. Assemble a shopping list of stocks I may want to buy later on (I have a few in mind)

I'll see if I can open a separate progress thread on this, although the US stocks discussion is more relevant in this forum.


That being said, the Malaysian stock market is heavily cyclical, and the smart money even poaches stocks with great fundamentals, making hold-and-buy or dividend investing (that UNSCRIPTION paycheck pot approaches may subscribe to) difficult to maintain.

That means I'll have to set target buy/sell levels, watch technicals for warning signals on a regular, activist basis...something that is closer to trading than investing...which is expected, given MJ's opinion that the markets are a means to get a return on your capital, not for solely wealth-building.


-I'm also revising my Habits Tracker. Amongst the changes, I'm looking to drop my Copywriting Practice habit from the tracker in favor of my other habits or projects.
 
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bornoim

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bornoim

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ZF Lee

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OK...I'm back...

I'll start tracking the following habits:

(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily
I realised that after I stopped tracking my wake-up hours, I started slumbering longer and waking up at 10 AM-
12 PM (GASP).

(2) Daily Reading/Learning: just read or watch something valuable every day
No action-faking, course-binging here. Just one bite a day.

I have added more than just some books and courses to my learning list...added some audio stuff like Nate Schmidt's Ecom Depository (pay $9 a week for access to his talks on ecom and business bits delivered to your email)

Also will be spending some significant time on polishing up my technical analysis by reading and watching Rayner's stuff. The stock market's currently on steroids, but I can't exactly dismiss chart-reading for investing.

(3) Bible Reading -to be done daily
Got hold of Bible Study Fellowship notes to give my readings some structure, but I realised I left out my earlier readings of the Paulian books...something I do need to go back to now and then.

(4) Daily Exercise
Also realised I did not track exercise for some time, which could have contributed to my feelings of lethargy in the day and late mornings.

Will be starting out with daily push-ups, but will ramp it up as time goes on.

Started with 15X push-ups last Saturday, and today, I increased it slightly to 20X.

Had to take some time to correct my posture after reading this article:

(5) Daily Supplements 2X a day

Self-explanatory. Just some vitamins.
I'm testing out a few times in the morning and evening for the most optimal time to take supplements without me somehow running to the toilet.


These habits aren't too sexy, but they are probably the ones I've struggled with greatly (even in the past!)...and almost everyone I know struggles with.

I started tracking these habits since last Saturday (13 Feb 2021):
1613375942206.png
 

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  • ZF LEE TFLF HABITS TRACKER 2021 - 13-14_2_2021.pdf
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ZF Lee

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Update for 15-21/2/2021

(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily

Only woke up late 10.30AM on Tuesday, the other days woke up to latest 9.40AM

From Wednesday onwards, I noticed I could start waking up at 8AM+ without the alarm ringing, but unfortunately, I'm still wasting time lounging around in bed catching catnaps and phone.

Since the daily exercises must have been helping my body to wake up, maybe increasing my routines should help.

(2) Daily Reading/Learning: just read or watch something valuable every day
Successfully managed to watch/read something every day, mostly finishing up Rayner Teo's Price Action Trading Secrets and Nate Schmidt's weekly Ecom Depository drops

I do my best to keep the readings/watching small...just 15-20 mins so that I don't end up action faking and having the stuff take up more time than work.


(3) Bible Reading -to be done daily
Done

(4) Daily Exercise
From Mon to Thurs, I started with 20X push-ups daily.
From Friday onwards, I raised it slightly to 25X push-ups

I didn't jump into multiple exercise routines so that I could keep some consistency.
I was surprised how difficult it was to even do 10X pushups at first (after a chronic absence of physical exercising for a looong time)...so I needed to do it more, bit by bit.
In the coming days I might add some sit-ups or more based on WallStreet Playboys' Efficiency book.


(5) Daily Supplements 2X a day
Easily achieved. Seemed to have struck a habit of taking supplements an hour or so after waking-up and in the afternoon (12PM- 2PM-ish)
 

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  • TFLF HABITS TRACKER 2021 - 15-21_2_2021.pdf
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ZF Lee

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Update for 22-28/2/2021

(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily

Woke up late on Wed and Fri at 10.30AM+

Will be looking to reduce my screentime before sleep, reducing eating and even coffee (Although I haven't drank lots of coffee recently, and my phone reports mention my usage dropped by 17% compared to last week)

(2) Daily Reading/Learning: just read or watch something valuable every day
Mostly a mix between TradeVSA's stock commentary (for local stocks), Ben Settle's CopySlacker, Kyle Milligan and even Dan Pena's latest 4th edition QLA book (less meat than his 'Your First 100 Million' book though)


(3) Bible Reading -to be done daily
Done

(4) Daily Exercise
Missed out on Wednesday.
Still stuck at 25X push-ups daily.

Had a couple of family appointments across the week, so I had to hurry through exercises.
Hopefully this week I can ramp it up.


(5) Daily Supplements 2X a day
Met
 
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  • TFLF HABITS TRACKER 2021 - 22-28_2_2021.pdf
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ZF Lee

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Update for 1-8/3/2021
(includes today, as I'll be changing up LOTS of habits to track)

(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily

Woke up late on Thurs and Fri around 10-10.30AM+
My bad...I kept rolling in the F*cking bed.

I realised I did a simple, but blatant mistake...I didn't write or record my PLAN on what would trigger me waking up completely (cue Atomic Habits). Without a plan, it was easy for me to open my eyes with an empty brain, and then roll back into slumber...

So I'll write my plan (a habits-chain) here, and set it in stone to follow:
1. Alarm rings
2. Get up and go to the bathroom
3. Habit is accomplished after I clean up
4. Proceed to exercise (sit-ups, push-ups, whatever)

Shameful I didn't do such a simple thing.


(2) Daily Reading/Learning: just read or watch something valuable every day
Still a mix between TradeVSA's stock commentary (for local stocks), Ben Settle's CopySlacker and Nate Schmidt's stuff.

Broke a few chapters into Buy then Build by Walker Deibel.
Somehow reminded me about Dan Pena's Quantum Leap method.

Work is picking up (I want to do more Upwork stuffs to finish off some Connects), so I think I'll suspend this habit, for now


(3) Bible Reading -to be done daily
Missed out on Sunday (no, church is separate...)
Continued where I stopped at the Paul-ian books to break into 2 Corinthians.


(4) Daily Exercise
Missed out on Friday and Sunday, but from Thursday onwards, I raised my push-ups from 25X to 30X.
Surprisingly tough, although I made sure as best as I could that my posture was in line with Nerd Fitness' guide.

Haven't added any more to the routine...


(5) Daily Supplements 2X a day

From Tuesday, I started a new vitamin, so I'm going to reduce this to 1X a day.



NEW HABITS TO ADD
I'll only add two:

1. DAILY CHINESE/CANTONESE LEARNING
My learning plan is simple:
-Read/listen to Mandarin and Cantonese speeches, articles, news, etc ONCE a day
-pick a few key phrases and sentences
-repeat them in as many scenarios as possible (read, write, speak...just use it)

BTW, the subreddits for learning Mandarin are stuck in a F*cking circle-jerk...keep talking about DuoLingo and HSK Mandarin and whatever crap...instead of practical insights to actually training up the tongue and script.

So I had to just apply Kyle Milligan's copywriting practices to this (read copy, study copy, write copy) to language-learning.

I personally have no problem with the tones...just need to add my vocabulary.

Later I'll try some forums or chat groups to practice verbally.


2. DAILY MARKET RESEARCH
Realised that this has to be made an everyday practice, instead of a one-off thing went client projects or business ideas hop in.

This means taking oodles of notes on forums, competitor offers and anything related to the market...and its good to be more exposed to the market speak.

I'll try to give my first few hours of the day to this.
 

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  • TFLF HABITS TRACKER 2021 - 1-7_3_2021.pdf
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ZF Lee

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Update for 9-14/3/2021

(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily

Woke up late on Wed and Thurs at 10AM

(2) Daily Market Research
Missed out on Tues and Thurs due to appointments, but I started researching on copywriters and their typical target audience: small biz owners

Realised that when I used to write my Upwork copywriting bio, my research was not deep enough...
Which was shameful. Forum/review mining is considered as 'lazy' by some hardcore copywriters, but still, it can give lots of insights if time is taken to shift thru.

A question came to me during the research: What do business owners make the mistake of thinking/assuming when they hire copywriters? What do copywriters LIE to the prospects on?

I googled these, and found some interesting opinion thought pieces (especially from Neil Patel, thought his stuff went obsolete)

This research habit will take longer than expected to get used to, but I have to fix this part of the process.



(3) Mandarin/Cantonese learning
Missed out on Tues
Humbled myself to watch and learn from Peppa Pig videos (yes, they have mandarin versions on YouTube)
Surprisingly effective (most folks do learn English from Sesame Street anyway, so I guess it works similarly)

Opened up a Docs to record notable phrases and sentences.
Found yabla to be a decent Mandarin dictionary...it can register English or Chinese characters, and presents the word in example sentences and video scripts. So I can use the example sentences as fodder to repeat and learn new words in a variety of contexts.



(4)Bible Reading
Done on all days


(5)Daily Exercises
Missed out Wed.
Added some stretching exercises from Friday onwards (10 sets)
Found that 30 push-ups a day began to be a lot less tiring than before...used to push-up my guts out, but these days...it felt more doable. I'm thinking of increasing it all the way to 50X, but I should think about the other parts of my body as well.

(6) Supplements (1X daily)
Met on all days
 

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ZF Lee

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Update for 15-21/3/2021

(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily

Woke up late on Mon, Tues and Fri (around 10-11AM)

I'm ashamed to say that this is due to 'revenge procrastination'...the days have been real busy until I had little time to relax and wind down in personal time...and that led to me blowing more hours late into the night on a book. And sleeping later is a disaster for waking up early.

I'll track my sleeping times starting next week, but I'll also see how to size up my daily schedule to leave me some breathing room.


(2) Daily Market Research
Missed out on Thursday.
It seems B2B services research isn't that easy for review mining unless you niche in deeper into local forums or subreddits. Trying out a combo of search keywords plus SimilarWeb findings. Sometimes I hop into competitors/freelancers' profiles/book reviews to see the ideal vision (and failures) prospects face when using the product or service.

As usual, Facebook groups are cesspools.



(3) Mandarin/Cantonese learning
Left out Thurs, but generally happy with the results from regular reading and watching Peppa Pig in Mandarin.
I'm using the dictionary more often to check out individual characters (many Mandarin terms are compound words eg 春节 is literally 'spring festival', which leads me to more terms...plenty to learn.

Maybe I'll open up some online flashcards to carry my learning beyond my PC.

(4)Bible Reading
Done on all days


(5)Daily Exercises
Missed out Friday

(6) Supplements (1X daily)
Met on all days
 
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ZF Lee

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UPDATE FOR 22-28/3/21
(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily

Woke up late on Tues and Thurs (10AM+)


(2) Sleeping at 11pm-12.30am
Slept late around 2AM on the weekends, but even though I generally kept to the 'sleep by 12.30am rule' for the weekdays, I still had problems actually falling asleep...

Lots of family problems, worrying and such.
It would be easier if I had someone I could talk to regularly, who won't judge, who won't nag me with an agenda...but I don't have her ever since...

I really, really need to get out.


(3) Daily Market Research
Skipped Saturday and Sunday, but I'm finding lots of missing links in my research processes...

I'm looking into Daniel Throsell's Market Detective course, one of the few copywriting courses that specifically zooms into research. I looked at his sales letter, and sure enough, he brought up my pain points.

It's about one-grand...but most high-ticket copywriting courses go up to $5000...so I guess it's actually a steal if it will help me. I'll suspend this habit for a while as I work to learn from the course and rework things.


(4) Mandarin/Cantonese learning
Done on all days.
Thinking of looking into the Startup Business Chinese series of textbooks, as they provide some exercises.

I noticed I haven't dug into anything on Cantonese yet...which makes me really irritated.
Ideally, I want to concentrate on one language first...but most Chinese around me will speak the Cantonese dialect rather than Mandarin. I'd prefer Mandarin as I find it much simpler, and the vocab pours out more easier.

The learning Mandarin/ Cantonese thing is also something I'd want to rant about one of these days.
I'm very sorry to say that even the Asian community (especially family) itself has some toxic/unsupportive attitudes in helping with my learning.


(5)Bible Reading
Done on all days


(6)Daily Exercises
Done on all days

(7) Supplements (1X daily)
Met on all days

On a slightly relevant note, I would like to cut down on my carbs for lunch (i.e. eat less rice, more proteins)
I was reading online that too much carbs for lunch will make you sleepy for the rest of the afternoon.
Which is probably why every Malaysian at the customer service desk is sleepy as F*ck after lunch!

Cutting the carbs should allow my brain to work a tad better, instead of dozing off or having me reach for the coffee mug.
 

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ZF Lee

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UPDATE FOR 22-28/3/21
(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily

Woke up late on Tues and Thurs (10AM+)


(2) Sleeping at 11pm-12.30am
Slept late around 2AM on the weekends, but even though I generally kept to the 'sleep by 12.30am rule' for the weekdays, I still had problems actually falling asleep...

Lots of family problems, worrying and such.
It would be easier if I had someone I could talk to regularly, who won't judge, who won't nag me with an agenda...but I don't have her ever since...

I really, really need to get out.


(3) Daily Market Research
Skipped Saturday and Sunday, but I'm finding lots of missing links in my research processes...

I'm looking into David Throsell's Market Detective course, one of the few copywriting courses that specifically zooms into research. I looked at his sales letter, and sure enough, he brought up my pain points.

It's about one-grand...but most high-ticket copywriting courses go up to $5000...so I guess it's actually a steal if it will help me. I'll suspend this habit for a while as I work to learn from the course and rework things.


(4) Mandarin/Cantonese learning
Done on all days.
Thinking of looking into the Startup Business Chinese series of textbooks, as they provide some exercises.

I noticed I haven't dug into anything on Cantonese yet...which makes me really irritated.
Ideally, I want to concentrate on one language first...but most Chinese around me will speak the Cantonese dialect rather than Mandarin. I'd prefer Mandarin as I find it much simpler, and the vocab pours out more easier.

The learning Mandarin/ Cantonese thing is also something I'd want to rant about one of these days.
I'm very sorry to say that even the Asian community (especially family) itself has some toxic/unsupportive attitudes in helping with my learning.


(5)Bible Reading
Done on all days


(6)Daily Exercises
Done on all days

(7) Supplements (1X daily)
Met on all days

On a slightly relevant note, I would like to cut down on my carbs for lunch (i.e. eat less rice, more proteins)
I was reading online that too much carbs for lunch will make you sleepy for the rest of the afternoon.
Which is probably why every Malaysian at the customer service desk is sleepy as f*ck after lunch!

Cutting the carbs should allow my brain to work a tad better, instead of dozing off or having me reach for the coffee mug.
UPDATE FOR 29/3/21-3/4/21 (Mon to Sat)
I'm sorry to say that I'll have to suspend my habits tracking till further notice.

For now, here's the summary of my current progress:

(1) Waking up around 8-9AM daily
Woke up late on Mon, Wed, Fri (10.15 AM+)


(2) Sleeping at 11pm-12.30am
Slept late on Mon and Thurs (1 AM+)


(3) Daily Market Research
Habit is still suspended as I'm studying Daniel Throsell's Market Detective course.

If any copywriter is reading this, save your money and buy the damn course!

It has EVERYTHING on market research...how to survey your client as a starting point, how to dig through the garbage on Reddit, how to organize your brief (instead of the endless lists the Udemy copywriting courses seem to encourage mindlessly), how to draw out a Big Idea or Mechanism from the brief...

Also sign up for Daniel Throsell's emails.
His Parallel Welcome email Sequence is one of a kind...very long, but probably one of the most engaging.
Throughout his welcome email sequence, he rewards you for reading every email with a fun story, and even slips in some affiliate links for other copywriters or gurus within the stories.

Unfortunately, because the course is very good, I was unable to read-and-apply simultaneously i.e. write copy while looking at the course material that typical action-getters here do. There was a lot to digest and lots of demo videos...so I had to delay my Upwork copywriting work for a bit...which means I wouldn't be writing proposals for Upwork to get jobs for a bit...

After all, I do not want to offer copywriting services that are FLAWED. I need to correct my processes, and then I can sell confidently and truly help businesses to give them the sales copy they desperately need.

Unfortunately, since I wasn't making money in the short-term, my parents started hounding me to get a job (since I'm technically graduated).

"Just go work at X place/X uncle's business/Subway/whatever just to get the experience. Forget about the money."

"Freelancing isn't a job. You are just seeing people through a screen . That isn't real-world contact."


I kept quiet as much as I could because I didn't want to stir the pot. But if I could, I'd rebutt back:

"What do you mean money doesn't matter?! It MATTERS because it's the yardstick of value!
If I get paid too little, it means my labor wasn't that important to them...and I must raise my value!

Skills like copywriting, web design, accounting, consultancy have better pay scales because they give much better value and ROI for a business- more than a McDonalds' worker!

And what the F*ck do you mean 'freelancing isn't real-world contact'?!

I've had to discuss new deals with shitty clients, remake onboarding processes over and over, have countless revision rounds or interviews, cajole team members to submit their part of the work, throw in soft compliments now and then to psychologically reward or punish clients for certain actions...this isn't real-world contact?????

Also, you never heard of work-from-home? Unless you are building houses or cooking as a hawker, you would most likely be stuck behind a screen! Not ideal, but what to do? Many employers or clients are doing this!"


Maybe my parents bring it up because they care.
But I cannot help but wonder whether they just want me to be like everyone else in the SCRIPTED status quo.

To be fair, it is also my fault as well.
I stopped Upwork mid of last year because I was feeling burned-out, and my last college semester had more stupid group members and studying to deal with.

But these were actually EXCUSES.

Being burned out might very well have showed me more where to improve, and I could have googled better to find better resources like the Market Detective course. I should never have stopped my Upwork work...

Still, I cannot believe I still haven't moved out yet, even after I wrote that post on the Random Rants thread...

I already earmarked where I want to move to, but the stupid thing is that the government has banned interstate travel unless I have a work permit or taken a vaccine (the rollout is still slow, and I don't want to take it because I can't choose my brand!)

I'll think of something...but my first priority is to learn enough of the Market Detective course, and apply it quickly to my Upwork jobs. That's why I have to suspend the Habits Tracker for some time...my activities are gonna be quite imbalanced.


(4) Mandarin/Cantonese learning
Done on all days except Friday.
Regretfully I haven't gotten the Chinese textbook I stated I wanted earlier.
So little time...all I could do was just watch more Mandarin Peppa Pig videos and jot down new words and phrases on a Word doc.


(5)Bible Reading
Done on all days except Friday


(6)Daily Exercises
Done on all days. Still stuck at push-ups and some stretching exercises though.

(7) Supplements (1X daily)
Taken on all days
 

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Mario_fastlaner

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Hi guys, I want to track my study hours during the next month because of my university exams.

To keep me accountable, I'm gonna do a challenge called 240/30: I have to complete 240 pomodoros (25 minutes of study each) in the next 30 days.

My idea is to complete 12 pomodoros per day for 20 days and have 10 days off.

I will update my progress daily.
 
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Great!
BTW, what are you studying currently?
Engineering? Computer science? Business?
I’m studying Law, to be more specific right now I’m on international law (law between states, international organizations etc.)
 
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Day 4: 12 pomodoros completed.

Very hard today, I was dead-tired both physically and mentally. It's 1 am here but I'm proud to have completed my daily goal.

48/240.
 
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Day 6: others 12 pomodoros.

Day 7 and day 8 will be rest days. See you on day 9.

72/240.
 
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