I just realized that today is the first day of February. Since I have been following the weekly goals, I totally forgot about the monthly review. The change is difficult to measure at a week level, it gives a better picture when seen at a month level.

January Review:

 
1.Reading books:
 
I used to have the bad habit of starting a book and then jumping to another new book and come back to the first book after a few months. Due to that habit, I used to lose track of what the book was in the first place. By reading a book a week, it forces me to stick to the book and finish it.
 
The downside of this method is that when I finish the book I won’t be able to go back to it and implement what I learnt. So this defeats the purpose of reading for the sake of implementing what I have learnt.
 
I will make some tweaks to this method to make it work in my favour.
 
2.Courses
 
I finished Viral marketing course on coursera. I am on the verge of finishing Influence people course too. These two are more like psychology courses than courses which teach ready to implement information. It is an action for me to make a to-do list to implement what I learn.
 
3.Behavioral changes:
 
At a week level even though it was easy to implement them, I became careless about them after the week. The one week was not sufficient to make that a habit.
 
4.Socializing:
 
This was the best and worst habit of the month. I made a lot of friends. I am measuring the depth of the friendship with the amount of personal information they were willing to share with me and the amount of fun I can have with them. Even though I could not find anyone who I can connect with, it was still a successful experiment.
 
The downside of it was productivity during office hours took a toll. I was spending way too much time on socializing that I found it tough to come back and get into a flow state.
 
5.Exercise:
 
The best part of the month was I started going for a run in the morning again. This gives me an opportunity to go admire the sun rise over the beach daily. It also brings a big smile on my face and a good start for the day.
 
The downside of this was I was not able to do yoga after coming back from running in the initial few days.
 

Plans for February:

 
1.Reading books:
 
I will quit the one book per week. Instead I will go for one change a week. I will not quit reading books but then I will read multiple ones at the same time but the reason for switching will not be getting bored but it will be not implementing the change yet. If the book has not many immediately actionable items, then I will finish it. For example, Tiny beautiful things was a book which can be read in one sitting. It is a beautiful book. There is no immediate implementation steps there. But the Feeling good book has so many exercises to be done. So finishing it in one go will make the book useless.
 
2.Exercise
 
This month I totally forgot push-ups and planks. Now I want to get back to them and also squats along with the last month exercise routine.
 
3.Behavioral changes:
 
I will experiment with different types of journaling every week of the next month.
 
4.Socializing
 
I will keep a time count and reduce the amount of time I speak with people. I will move to socializing in groups than talking to individuals as this will help me with connecting with a lot of people while reducing the time spent on this exercise.
 
5.Art
 
Creating a piece of art not only enhances creativity but also helps in relaxing. I will spend at least a few minutes in making crafts, zentangles and painting.
 
How was your January? What are your plans for February?
 
Happy Feb!