The best part of the week was I started going for a run again. It gave me a chance to appreciate the morning beauty around me.
 

Review of Week 16

 
1.Book of the week:
 
I just read a few pages from different books. Didn’t really read anything worth mentioning.
 
2.Course of the week:
 
I tried a few courses on edx but they were not really interesting.
 
3.Habit of the Week: Picture a day
 
One of the best things I tried this year. I usually click pictures if the place is worth capturing. But this one exercise helped me appreciate my surroundings better. There is so much beauty around me and I just stay blind to it. Only after I started clicking pictures, I learnt to appreciate the beauty. Not only am I surprised at the pictures I clicked, my friends who were into photography and who were not into photography were equally surprised. I will soon open a new blog for the my photos and share it over here.
 
4.Write book
 
I have not really progressed much in terms of the number of words I could write. But I started working on consolidating the book and bringing a shape to it. Two blocks are done. Two more blocks are left. I am yet to decide on the title and book cover.
 

Challenges for Week 17

 
1.Habit of the Week: Poem a day
 
My friend had been giving a prompt regularly to write poems. It is my new love now. So I will take some time in the day to write a few beautiful poems to feel happier.
 
2.Write book
 
I have only 5 days left to be precise. With a bit of little extra efforts and efficient planning, I should be able to finish it.
 
How was your week 16? What are your plans for week 17? Let us know in the comments section.
 
Happy Week 17!
 

The best part of week 15 was finding a writer friend. I didn’t know that I can write beautiful poems until she said that my poems made her day. Another friend introduced me to a quizzing app where I won the first game. Even though they are small things, they made my week.
 

Review of Week 15

 
1.Book of the week: Make it stick
 
The experiments mentioned in the book were interesting. Even though the concepts are already known it is just the examples which make you go aww.
 
2.Course of the week:
 
I tried a few courses on edx but they were not really related to my subject.
 
3.Habit of the Week: Laugh
 
Instead of needing to find a source for laughter, I forced into my daily conversations. Now my friends look at me as if I ran away from asylum for the laughter.
 
4.Write book
 
I wrote 13174 words in 6 days. I am more than happy for the efforts I put in. It gave me a new confidence in life.
 

Challenges for Week 16

 
1.Book of the week:
 
I need to do some research for writing additional details for the skeleton of my book. So this week I will stay away from sticking to one single book.
 
2.Course of the week:
 
I will watch courses only if time permits.
 
3.Habit of the Week: Picture a day
 
Last week, I fell in love in photography again. I found a mentor and started learning the basics. To keep up the work, I will click one pic a day this week.
 
4.Write book
 
Even though I felt hopeless the before week, the progress I made in week 15 gave me a new hope. It feels finishing the book is doable. I want to finish off writing the remaining part of the book this week. So that I will have one week left for editing, formatting and book title and cover preparation.
 
That is all for the next week.
 
How was your week 15? What are your plans for week 16? Let us know in the comments section.
 
Happy Week 16!
 

The best part of the week was reading a book which motivated me to do PhD. All this while, it was a dream. The book made me realise that is where my heart lies.
 

Review of Week 14

 
1.Book of the week: Learned Optimism
 
One of the unputdownable books I ever read. The way he uncovered the story was really impressing. Even though I did not read the final part of the book yet, the experimentation part was all which held my attention.
 
2.Course of the week: Science of happiness
 
I don’t like edx app as much as coursera. Hence, I was just postponing to do it and ended up just watching the introduction.
 
3.Habit of the Week: Rate my activities
 
The most painful activity in the week was eating and the most pleasure giving activity was reading. I felt accomplished for finishing a few assignments. Overall, it was a great activity to rate activities.
 
4.Write book
 
This was a disaster. As I was closer to finishing the first draft of the book, I was clueless about whether whatever I wrote made any sense. I requested a friend to read a chapter. He said that I did not do enough justice to the book. I needed more experience to write a book on that topic. It felt like my dream of writing a book in a month was impossible. It took me sometime to accept the fact it was not up to the mark. I already spent a lot of hours in research for the book. It put me in a dilemma on what next. It took two days for the feeling to sink in. But then I decided to be resilient and started working on the next steps.
 

Challenges for Week 15

 
1.Book of the week: Make it stick
 
It is a book backed by research on what makes learning stick for a long time. I read a few chapters in this book before. Hoping to finish it this week.
 
2.Course of the week:
 
I will do the courses related to my psychology subjects so that I can kick start my preparation.
 
3.Habit of the Week: Laugh
 
I will watch a video or read a book or do anything which can make me laugh. If I can’t find anything, I will just force a laugh. Laughing not only reduces stress but also improves health and well-being.
 
4.Write book
 
Today, I went to a book store on my way back home from work. I felt a bit low wondering if I will ever achieve my dream of writing a book. But that is when my inspiration sprouted. Starting off with a new topic today is tough. But I will give my best. I can spend around two hours everyday and write 2000 words a day. I hope I will be able to write good enough to motivate the reader this time.
 
That is all for the next week.
 
How was your week 14? What are your plans for week 15? Let us know in the comments section.
 
Happy Week 15!
 

It’s been a year that I have been writing monthly reviews now. I have come a long way. The small things which I have been doing every month added up to something big. I finished French on Duolingo, reached a plateau on Elevate, read a lot of books, writing challenges, watched interesting courses on various sites, experimented with different exercises, made changes to the way I am as a person. It has been a wonderful journey. None of this would have been possible without the monthly planning. I have longer way to go.
 

Review of March:

 
1.Reading books:
 
I was not able to read all the list but I read close to 7 books. Each book gave the same message in a different style. If I have to summarize it all, you reap what you sow. You create your reality with your thoughts. Choose your thoughts carefully and move towards staying positive.
 
2.Exercise
 
I haven’t made much progress in exercising. The awesome part was my knee pain has not come back after doing squats.
 
3.Writing
 
I wrote a couple of book reviews. Apart from that I was busy writing for my book. So I couldn’t concentrate much on blogging.
 
4.Courses
 
All I could complete was development psychology on edx and a bit of introduction to psychology on coursera. Also, even though it was not a part of the plan, I thoroughly enjoyed the course on positive psychology on coursera.
 
5.Assignments
 
I made a lot of progress on my assignments. I wrote enough to exhaust the ink in the pen. Thankfully the last day got extended and hoping to finish the remaining in next two weeks.
 

Plans for April:

 
1.Publish book
 
It is a very ambitious plan to publish a book in around a month that too when I am doing it for the first time. But I wanted a challenge which will be really challenging. I am hoping to at least finish writing if not publishing. But I don’t see anything wrong in being over ambitious about publishing either.
 
2.Finish assignments
 
I have no other choice than to finish them this month. I need to be more serious about this than last month.
 
3.Books
 
I need to focus more on my text books than on other books. I am targeting to finish at least half the syllabus this month. One chapter a day will also be good enough progress. I will make use of my morning commute time for this.
 
4.Courses
 
Since I could do only 2 courses last month, hoping to do the remaining this month. Learning through multiple modes reinforces learning and also acts as revision.
 
There are not too many plans for this month because the few ones which I have chosen are by themselves demanding, challenging and time consuming.
 
How was your March? What are your plans for April?
 
Happy April!
 

This week wasn’t a great one. I was dealing with a headache on most of the days. But the best part was going for a farewell treat of a friend which helped me relax a bit.
 

Review of Week 13

 
1.Book of the week: The power of intention
 
I was not able to complete it since I had to read other books too for writing my book. But if there is one new thing I learnt from this book is – Intention is a feeling which will tell you what to pursue and what to leave. This one sentence is different from the concepts I read from every other book on positive thinking.
 
2.Course of the week: Positive Psychology – Resilience Skills
 
I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Even though a few topics (cognitive distortions and gratitude) were already known to me, the way course was presented and the part on strengthening relationships was amazing.
 
3.Habit of the Week: Fear tracker
 
A lot of my fears are something which I don’t know how to face them right now. But I believe that when time comes, I would have become strong enough to face them.
 
4.Write book
 
I wrote a bit more than 1000 words on a few days. I am happy with the progress I have been making.
 

Challenges for Week 14

 
1.Book of the week:
 
I don’t have any particular book in my mind. I will need to read different chapters from different books for gaining some knowledge to write for my book. So I don’t want to pressurize myself with sticking to the completion of a single book.
 
2.Course of the week: Science of happiness
 
There is another course on positive psychology on coursera but the syllabus does not seem that interesting for me at this point. Instead, I want to move to edx to do the course on happiness.
 
3.Habit of the Week: Rate my activities
 
I had been trying a lot of different things in past 3 months but I am not sure about the amount of happiness I have been deriving from them. So at the end of the day, I am going to rate the activities on a scale of 1-10 ( 1 being lowest and 10 being highest) under headings happiness, growth, pain.
For example, Writing is the task and it gives me happiness of rating 5. The rating and the heading might differ for the same task tomorrow.
 
4.Write book
 
I need to increase the number of words per day to 1500 now to close the writing part of the book by next week. A lot of time will go in editing and rewriting.
 
That is all for the next week.
 
How was your week 13? What are your plans for week 14? Let us know in the comments section.
 
Happy Week 14!