Plan after work today: I want to start volunteering. I don't know what I want to do yet, so tonight I plan to look into different options. Some might argue, as Dan has argued in the past, that it's better to work toward large-scale, systematic change, and that it's a waste of time to bother with small acts aimed at improving the community. I have three answers to that argument:
1) Systematic change is neither guaranteed, nor is it guaranteed to produce positive effects; however, small acts are easily achieved and in many cases manifestly positive. Furthermore, the sum of a lifetime of small acts is considerable and maybe even comparable to a single act of implementing large scale change.
2) I don't think the time investment that I'm considering--a few hours per week--is large enough to undermine my efforts for broader action. Not to mention the fact that I'm wasting a lot of my time right now anyway, and I might as well use it one something good. My availability may change, but right now, the time is there.
3) There is a personal benefit to volunteering. It is immediately rewarding, and it helps maintain humility. In a way, it seems like a spiritual practice, something necessary to maintain the health of the soul. I don't want to find myself at next year's Yom Kippur service once again lamenting my lack of contribution to the community.
In addition to my volunteering research, I plan to spend time with Eva, work on my HTRAB worksheet for at least 30 minutes, spend some time on French, and RSVP about Penn's open house.

Three Principles

1. The reckoner: Honest and frequent self-evaluation.
2. The thinker: Define values, set goals, and develop plans using clear and rational deliberation.
3. The agent: Never act the worse when you know better--when the choice is clear, you must submit to its authority. Do not relinquish the will to base impulses.

Items Added to Task List: 0
Items Removed from Task List: 0
Items Remaining: 34

Items Added to Task List: 0
Items Removed from Task List: 1--“Create Sleep Journal”
Items Remaining: 34

Summary: I got up shamefully late, but I didn’t give up because of it. I ate a healthy breakfast and got ready for the day, worked on Kaplan, cleaned my coat, picked up documents at the Kaplan center, followed up with our plumber, exercised, wrote some e-mails, went to Cost Plus with Eva and picked up some things for the house, made my sleep journal, and worked on my French lessons.
My sleep journal is small black book I’m going to keep next to my bed. Each night and on the following morning I’m going to make notes on the day's caffeine consumption, exercise, diet, stress level, bed time, wake up time, quality of sleep, and total hours slept. If anyone can suggest other variables, please do so. Eventually I want to experiment with my sleep scientifically, so that I change only one variable while leaving the others the same and seeing how that affects things. Even if I’m not experimenting, I think the information may still provide insights. So for tonight I recorded that I had no caffeine, I exercised, I had a healthy diet, and a high level of stress (anytime I behave with discipline I feel stressed out). When I go to bed I’ll record my bed time, and when I wake up I’ll record the time I wake up. For tomorrow, I’m going to let myself wake up naturally. I’ll probably end up sleeping 12 hours, which is typical if I don’t limit myself.
Also, since I wasn't posting the day I got the news, I'll post it now: I got into MIT.

Plan for Tomorrow: I’m falling behind my schedule for the Kaplan prep, so other than essential activities, I need to work on that. It’s Josh’s birthday, and going to his party is one of those essential activities. Also, I plan to workout, clean the bathroom, shop for a present, and possibly work on French if I need a break from Kaplan.

*Post for 3/6*
I can't access my task list right now, so I can't recap that.

Summary: I worked the entire day starting at 9:20. I missed the trolley that would have gotten me here by 9:00, which was frustrating. This was because I stopped at a convenience store on my way to the Green Line and lost a few minutes. If I walk directly to the subway, I can leave at 7:45, but any diversions must be accounted for and time added accordingly. My not doing this was because of carelessness (I vaguely had the notion that I could hurry and still get everything done within my time frame).

Plan for tomorrow: I will sleep now for 8 hours, get up and eat a healthy breakfast, and then head back. I will work on Kaplan stuff until Eva gets home. The most immediate task is to schedule a session 6 for next week. After Eva gets home, we'll go to the Flower Show, and later Alex and Rachel are coming over. We don't know if they'll be here for dinner. I also plan to exercise and eliminate at least one small item on my task list.

Items Added to Task List: 1--“Minneapolis Plane Ticket”
Items Removed from Task List: 1--“Temple Info Sheet”
Items Remaining: 36 (I counted incorrectly yesterday)

Summary: I got into Penn. That was the exciting news of the day. Other than that, my day was somewhat productive, though I got up late because I’ve been sick the last two days.

Plan for tomorrow: Get up at 8, work from 9-5 on Kaplan stuff, exercise at 5, clean up in the kitchen, prepare food for Thursday, purchase Minneapolis plane ticket, and possibly work on my HTRAB guide.

Items Added to Task List: 1--"Set-up recycling"
Items Removed from Task List: 0
Items Remaining: 37

Plan for tomorrow: Work for Kaplan for at least 8 hours, which will include calling up HR rep about healthcare, taking training update on-line, and preparing my TEL. Call about getting a haircut. Exercising. Finishing my dish clean-up and planning a meal for Wednesday. Send out Temple information sheet.

Items Added to Task List: 1--"Temple Info Sheet"
Items Removed from Task List: 0
Items Remaining: 39

Comments: I got up late. I need to treat my own schedules as seriously as if they involved others or as if my job depended on it. Tomorrow I am determined to get up promptly. At least I stayed up late reading What is the What, so I didn't waste my time.
My work-out was furious and excellent today. I did some parkour tricks between my apartment and park and back. Dinner at La Fontana Della Citta was glorious. Now I'm going to work on my HTRAB sheets for a bit.

Plan for tomorrow: Work from 9-5, exercise from 5-5:30, work a bit more on Kaplan after exercising, eat dinner, and then after dinner to clean the bathroom, and knock out several of my small items on the to-do list.

Items Added to Task List: 1--"Read and respond to Pennfuture e-mail"
Items Removed from Task List: 0
Items Remaining: 38

Summary: I stuck to my schedule, although I didn't finish my letter; dinner took longer than expected, and I got a little lax just now as I was checking my e-mail First of all, with dinner--Dan will love this--I spent 3 hours just cooking it. Altogether it was a 4 hour affair. A lot of it was because of my inexperience. For one thing, I spent nearly 1 hour messing with the tofu because I didn't prepare properly. You're supposed to cut it before freezing it and then thaw it out before using it, and then dry it. I froze it right in the package, and only took it out 1/2 hour before I wanted to cook. So when I pulled it out, I had to melt the ice, and then draining it took forever. The end results were mostly good. I made broiled tofu with a Thai coconut curry marinade and leeks with a mustard vinaigrette.
It's important not to be rushed or become overwhelmed during the day. It wastes energy. To remedy this, I implemented the task list system to get things out of my head and on paper, if they fall out of the 5 minute threshold. Also, I have been trying to give each task enough time to complete it comfortably. That doesn't mean I go slow--my ideal pace is vigorous yet calm. It's important to be honest about the time requirements of things. Getting up, getting ready for the day, and eating breakfast takes me an hour almost exactly, for example. Posting and e-mail takes at least 20 minutes, although I started messing around while I was checking my e-mail tonight, so I couldn't properly test its time requirement.

Plan for tomorrow: Get up at 8, start working at 9, work until 5, work-out from 5-5:30, go out to dinner with Eva's acquaintances, continue work on my letter, read and respond to the latest Pennfuture e-mail, and do my normal bed time routine. Extra time will be used for reading, which has been lacking lately.

Items Added to Task List: 1
Items Removed from Task List: 0
Items Remaining: 37

Comments: I'm not worried about my task list growth--I'm working efficiently (plus not all tasks require equal investments of time, so 1 completion could equal the resources of 5 new added tasks).
Today was tiring, and time boundaries got stretched by unforeseen events. Like, I set aside about 15 minutes for e-mails and posting, but then my sister emailed me something to proof read, and then Eva started laundry but the drier was broke, but she was doing dishes, so I ended up bringing up the laundry and hanging it all over the apartment. Now it's 11:39, and I wanted to be asleep by 11:00. I still haven't read, and I want to. I didn't get to read last night.
How can I change to follow my time boundaries more closely? First of all, I need to recognize that if I want to eat at 7, I need to start cooking at least by 5:30, if not earlier. I'm slow right now, since I'm a beginner, and that's just the way it is. Furthermore, I think going to bed at 10:30 is too early with Eva's schedule, so I will shift to 11:30 and get up at 8 (remember, 11:30 bedtime really means 12, since it takes about 30 minutes to fall asleep fully). I doubt I will be able to get more than 8 hours on a regular basis, to follow up on Dan's article. I'd like to, but even 8 is a lot. I also need to be more strict with the internet time. Whenever a task comes up during this time, if I can possibly avoid it, I should just add it to my task list and deal with it later. There is, however, the consideration of the 5 minute rule, that I've been working to incorporate into my routine. The 5 minute rule appeared in some business management magazine that I read a while ago, and it stipulates that any task that spontaneously arises that takes 5 minutes or less should be taken care of right then, when it comes up. If it takes more than 5 minutes, and it isn't an emergency, write it down and do it later. This is sensible, because not doing this would result in a backlog of little, annoying tasks in my task list. However, it seems that small things come up all the time. And sometimes a small thing seems small at first but then grows into a larger thing. I guess that's when you have to cut it off and write it onto the task list.

Plan for tomorrow: get up after 8 hours of when I go to bed, whenever that will be, work on Kaplan until 5, workout from 5-5:30, start making dinner, start eating by 7, write the letter for my sister, read e-mails + post in 20 minutes, read for 30 minutes, and go to bed. At first I wrote 15 minutes for posting and e-mailing, but that's completely unrealistic. Just to write this post took 15 minutes. I'll try 20. It would be discouraging to think that I need to spend 30 minutes or more doing internet stuff each night, though I guess Franklin spent a significant portion of his day reading and writing letter, if I remember correctly.

It was tough to wake up early, but I did it, and I hope that now I'll be back on a more respectable time-table. Soon I'll be going to bed.
Breakfast was good, although a bit slower than I wanted because I had to make my hard boiled eggs for the week. However, now the rest of my breakfasts should be a lot faster with less clean up. The coffee was invigorating, but it gave me the jitter.
In the morning I slogged through HR trainings and documents for Kaplan. Actually, that lasted until the early afternoon. I ate some vegetable goyoza from TJs for lunch. By the end of my 8 hour session, I was practicing some lesson pages.
After work I worked out at the Mark Ward playground. Last week was sloppy in terms of my diet and exercise, so I'm set back about a week or more in terms of my abilities (I'm heavier than I was last week, so I can't do as many pull-ups, for example). After working out, I switched into turbo mode to get ready for cooking.
Basically Eva and I decided that I'm going to make the majority of the meals for a while. We're doing this so I can improve my skills and get more accustomed to eating complete, healthy dinners. I designed dinners for the rest of the week, went shopping, and made the food for tonight. We had mixed greens with a mustard vinegarette, roasted butternut squash and green beans with beurre blanc sauce, raisin pine nut bread, and lemon pudding. I made the first two, and Eva made the second two. It turned out well. The sauce was awesome right when I finished, but then it started congealing, so I put it back on the heat, and then it separated. It was a bit of a debocle, but it still came out pretty well.
Now I'm exhausted and ready for bed. I want to read What is the What for at least 30 minutes.

Plan for tomorrow: have another good start, prep my lessons from 8-4, workout, clean the bathroom, deal with any mail, clean up in the kitchen, start dinner, then after dinner check e-mail, post, read, and go to bed.

I don't have my task list near me, so I can't report on the status of that.

Today I worked and started detoxing my body with more healthy eating. Tonight I'm eating dinner with my dad and another guy we know, then I'll either work on my HTRAB worksheets or read What is What.

Plan for tomorrow: Wake up at 7am and have a solid start. Begin preparing my Kaplan lessons at 8am. At 4 I will stop, go work out, plan a dinner, do some food shopping, do a little bit of miscellaneous work after dinner, and then read before going to bed.

Items Eliminated From My Task List: 2
Items Added To My Task List: 1
Items Remaining on My Task List: 32

Summary: I got my license, got some stuff for Valentine's day, filled out the FAFSA as far as I could (I need information from my work in Maryland), cleaned the apartment for a bit, and worked on Kaplan HR tasks. After that I started working on my HTRAB work-sheets.

Plan for tomorrow: Get up early and have a strong start to my day. Have coffee with Eva. Work on the FAFSA. Do a French lesson. Work on Kaplan HR stuff. Eliminate at least 1 item from my task list (FAFSA could be 1 if I finish it). Exercise. Start prepping my Kaplan lessons with time left-over.

I finished inspectionally reading Nietzsche's On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life. My next reading project is to create HTRAB forms corresponding to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th levels of reading. By form I mean a protocol with a list of tasks and questions demanded by each reading level. I want to get serious about reading deeply and with discipline.

Tomorrow's Plan: Get a PA license from the DMV, get stuff for Valentine's Day, fill out a FAFSA as far as I can, file my taxes if they're necessary for completing my FAFSA, clean the apartment, and, if time permits, work on Kaplan HR tasks.

For a moment, while I was in the Center City Penndot center, I got confused and thought I was at a Pakistani border checkpoint. Wow...had National Geographic seen that place, they definitely would not have named Philadelphia America's Next Great City.

Ibid

Today: Work. Tomorrow: Work.

Passed my training. Tomorrow work.

I'm very tired tonight. I didn't have a real day of rest yesterday, maybe that's the reason. This Kaplan prep stuff is also very draining. Tomorrow I'm going to prepare all day for Kaplan.

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."
--Mike Tyson