Forem: Jessica Chambers

Unboxing an iPad Air 4 and Apple Pencil

Jessica Chambers — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 18:43:42 +0000

First Impressions

2021: Going Forward

Jessica Chambers — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 22:07:19 +0000

2020 did not leave a good impression on people. But what 2020 did was make me think more about than what I usually would about.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

What can I do this year that was different from last year?

I want to take my blog to the next level, which will include starting a YouTube channel. I want to be able to give more than just words for my ideas. I want to put my ideas in video format. I have been thinking about this for years now. It seems like a good year to put it into action.

I want to write more technical blogs and I want to write blogs that have research to back it. Instead of just writing solely based on my experience, I want to add in other people’s experiences also.

Sharing my Design Process and Web Dev Process

Last year, I stopped coding. But I did do a lot of designing. So this year, I want to establish a working process. Taking a project and from start to finish document the process. This way I can show how it’s done and have my process clear for myself. I don’t think that I follow a procedure when it comes to making web designs and sites. But it’s nice to know what type of process that I have.

Personal Journal

Remembering the things that happen this year and for the future years to come. I just want a recount of the year to look back on.

Reading Journal

I already have a way to track what books I read. Now I want to give some details about the books I read. Sometimes, I look at a title and wonder what was this book about. Like really, what did I read here. So I am going to keep a log of what I read. As time goes on, I want to get more detailed in what I write. For now, I just have a summary every few days of what I read.

Reading Goal this year is 10 books. There are no specific books that I want to read, just whatever I find available and interested in. I don’t buy books by the way. I use Hoopla through my library because the library is still closed.

2020 Goals and Accomplishments

I posted a blog post every month. A lot of them actually did well, too. They got a good number of views and even a few claps. So if you read my posts regularly, let me know in the comments, and thanks.

Photo by Nelly Antoniadou on Unsplash

2020 — The Pandemic

My year didn’t change much. The only thing I have not done is gone into a restaurant and ate inside and seen family like we usually do on holidays and random weekends out of the year. The only people I saw outside of my house were my nieces and nephews and sister. I only see them because I have to take my niece to work. No parties, no social gatherings, nothing. I brought food from the store and went back home.

If you are still living your life like it’s March 2020, thank you. But if you are just not giving a damn… Be safe out there and wear a mask!!

Did you accomplish anything in 2020? Did 2020 make you reevaluate your life? What are you planning in 2021?

My Journey to Finding the Best Way to Learn Japanese

Jessica Chambers — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 20:41:51 +0000

I have been trying to learn Japanese for about 2 years now. I decided back in 2019 to learn Japanese because I was tired of reading subtitles in anime. There was always someone saying that the dubbed version is not the same as the Japanese version. Then most of the anime I watch is subbed so why not learn a language so that I can understand what’s going on when there is no subtitles.

So far, I have learned Hiragana and Katakana, how to count to 100 and days of the month. So I have not gotten far in the 2 years. But I have gotten somewhere. I would always forget the Hiragana and Katakana that I had learned. Some are engraved in my mind but some look like others that I just can’t remember.

Different Methods for Learning

Using OneNote

So I had to find ways to keep track of the things I learned and how to review those lessons. In the beginning, I had an OneNote notebook setup. I used this to be able use on my iPad with a stylus to handwrite Hiragana and Katakana to learn how to write them. But this did not work because I could not figure out to type Hiragana characters on the keyboard. Overall it started out as a good tool starting out. Then I was trying to organize the notebook into different subjects.

Paper and Pen

I have two notebooks for learning Japanese, one for practice and the other for note taking. I have a graph composition notebook to practice writing and to review notes by writing words that I have learned over time.

Notion

I recently watched a video on setting on a digital notebook in Notion. I have thought about using Notion for notes but I wanted to write the Kanji by hand. Then I stopped using One Note for Japanese by this time so why not give Notion a try.

Japanese Tasks and Lessons in Notion

I set up the notebook in the way the video had and made a template to save time on making new pages. Each lesson lives in a database, so that I can track where I am and what I’ve done.

Then another life changing video was released. This video was the ultimate task manager. The important part of this is that all tasks and are filtered into projects, all within one database. The thing that made this so important was having the ability to have recurring tasks. What better way to keep track of lessons and bring them back to review at a later date. I could do a lesson, learn some new words and set it up as recurring with X amount of days. So everything I learn come back depending on how well I know it.

This brings me back to paper and pen. In my composition notebook, I can write the words over and learn to recognize them and how to read Hiragana by not relying on the Romaji. Then for another review session, I can rewrite the notes that I took in the other notebook.

A view of notes in Notion.

Learning Materials

When I first started off, the first thing that I needed to learn was Hiragana and Katakana. So this was the only thing that I focused on. I am still learning this after 2 years. I know them, but I not as fast at it as I want to be. I want to recognize them they way I recognize the alphabet in English. I want it to be automatic.

Apps

Kana (only available on iOS)
Drops
kawaiiNihongo

YouTube Channels

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com

Japanese Lessons.com

JapanSocietyNYC

Linda Botes

There are other YouTube channels that I have came across that helped me understand what to think about when learning a new language. But those are not language based like the ones above.

Books

I started out in this book learning greetings and making notes in One Note. Then I stopped using this for a while. I wanted to stop using Romaji to identify Japanese sounds. So this is where my focus is now.

Genki Textbook and Workbook

Websites

I have been following Tofugo guide when I started learning Japanese. Starting with Hiragana and Katakana and adding on some basic lessons as I go along. This guide has resources and worksheets to get started learning Japanese.

RealKana is a website to practice Hiragana and Katakana. It is similar to the Kana app for iOS.

If you want to use the database to track your tasks and projects, here is the link to duplicate it:

Ultimate Tasks for Notion

2020 Book Haul

Jessica Chambers — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 16:02:54 +0000

2020 has been a good year to start reading or to grow your reading list. But for me, 2020 has been the opposite. I have been losing focus on reading anything. Compared with what I read at the beginning of the year, I have not been feeling any of the books that I have been trying to read. You would think that with all this time on my hands, I would take advantage of that time.

I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the disappointment in not being able to read the books that I wanted to read this year. I had to switch apps and libraries. My current library does not offer the books that were on my to-be-read list. So I had to find other books to read. I had to go deep into my list. Each book I wanted to read next was not available at my library. I was looking between two apps. But I did find some of the books that I wanted to read and added more books to read.

So I had to switch apps because my library card expired from Texas and I was no longer living there. At first, I was using Libby. Now that I live in Alabama, the library is not with Libby. Instead, they had Hoopla and Cloud Library. I am glad that my library was able to send me a pin because I needed it to set up on Hoopla and Cloud Library. So now for the books that I read this year.

2020 Book Haul

Each book that I finished, I can say that they were great books. My favorite book of the year is Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. This book was the most unexpected read of the year. The not so great book was Ethereal. It took over 2 years to read this book. I understand after finishing the book why it took so long.

Books Read

Becoming by Michelle Obama
Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Magician by Michael Scott
The Dark-Thirty by Patricia McKissack
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Han
Rosecliff Manor Haunting by Cheryl Bradshaw
Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Silver Moon by C.L. Bevill
Ethereal by Addison Moore

Did Not Finish (DNF)

These books may be revisited at a later date.

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Currently Reading

The Toll by Neal Shusteman
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Apps Mention

These apps work with your local library. Contact your library to see what options you have for borrowing books digitally.

Cloud Library

Hoopla Digital

Libby

Bullet Journal Supplies You Haven’t Tried

Jessica Chambers — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 16:02:44 +0000

I have been watching bullet journal videos for over 2 years now. Every video has involved stationery that looks great on video, but not great on my wallet. So I search my local stores for other options. Tombow, Papermate, Jelly Roll, Midliners are all good products, but there are better alternatives for the wallet.

When I say on a budget, I mean a budget. The supplies I list are not expensive or even what some people would call a budget. I am going to say it: cheap bullet journal supplies. Each item listed is under $10. The notebook is really the only thing that is close to $10. The pens, markers, and highlighters are under $5.

The Notebook

Now starting off, you should just use whatever paper notebook that you already have. Right there, you have saved between $1 — $20. After 4 months and you see yourself still using the notebook, maybe it’s time you think about what type of notebook you. You may want a dot grid or graph or blank notebook. Looking for a good notebook isn’t easy when you want to go with the recommendation of your favorite bullet journalist, who usually uses a notebook that is a lot of money. It’s just paper, right? I don’t care about paper thickness or weight.

A place to start is Michael’s. You can get any type of notebook for under $10 and they come in various colors. It looks just as good as any notebook that would cost more. Maybe if you are lucky, there are some on clearance. I found some for $1.47.

No Michael’s, well go to Walmart. You can find notebooks for under $10 also. I paid $6 for the one I got. It is a softcover notebook.

Walmart Exceed Notebooks

These notebooks are under $10. The links below are a few of the notebooks that I found links for. This the current notebook that I am using. I have been using this notebook since 2018. It has an envelope in the back. The paper is good. I don’t really care about paper quality. It doesn’t bleed through for real. You can see the ink on the back but, it’s not like you can read word for word on the back.

Exceed Black Large Journal, Dot Grid, 96 Pages, 7.5" x 9.75" — Walmart.com

Exceed Large DottedJournal, 96 Sheets, 7.5 x 9.75, Assorted Colors

Exceed Black Medium Dotted Journal, 120 Sheets, 5 x 8.25

Michael’s Artist Loft Notebooks

These notebooks come in dot grid, lined, blank, and grid. Then there is hardcover and softcover with various colors. Now the paper in this notebook is better than Exceed. The paper is white, unlike the Exceed notebook that has creme color paper.

Classic Journals from Michael’s

Pens and Markers

For markers, go to wherever it’s cheaper. Dollar Tree for a dollar. Now for pens, Dollar Tree is OK if you don’t care for pen quality. Walmart sells Pen+gear pens for $3 for a pack of 10. Pen+gear pens work very well. For regular, writing, I use a sharpie pen. A pack of two is $2. Sharpie is a good brand and the pens last for a long time. I am still using the pen after 6 months.

Michael’s has a selection of a lot of pens, pencils, and markers. You can buy them individually or in packs. You can try them out in the store before you buy them. Most of these items are under $4 when sold as individuals. In a pack, those prices are high.

PenGear Supplies

Pen+Gear has the best quality when it comes to pens on a budget. Two gel pens are less than a dollar. They have a 10 pack of fineliners pens for $3. There is also a 20 pack.

Pen+Gear Gel Pens

Pen+Gear Highlighters Assorted Colors

Pen + Gear Pocket Highlighters, Yellow

Sharpie Pen, Medium, Black — Walmart.com

Dollar Tree

Dollar Tree has a good selection of supplies. If you want a colorful bullet journal, you can get colored pencils, markers, and highlighters. Highlighters from the Dollar Tree work just fine for added color. Pens from Dollar Tree are the only thing that I hate using. I have not tried them all but, the ones I have trouble with writing. The pens sometimes skips or looks dull. I find myself always needing to go over the ink.

Unless the brand is Post It, don’t get the sticky notes. They are not that adhesive unless you add some tape to help hold them down.

Bulk Jot Chisel Tip Highlights, 4-ct. Packs

Bulk Inc. Erasable Highlighters, 2-ct. Packs

Notion Update

Jessica Chambers — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 18:22:22 +0000

In 2019, I wrote a post on Notion and now it’s 2020 so that means: Updates!

My Notion setup has changed in the past year. From having a complete database to having just simple to-dos items for tracking my projects.

But let’s start with the important updates. Along with these updates, there were bug fixes and more mobile stability added. So the app works better on iOS and Android devices. One of the most important updates to Notion was removing the block limit. I had multiple workspaces just so that I would not go over the 1000 block limit.

Backlinks

Although Notion’s backlinks don’t work like Roam, they are very useful and powerful. Within each page, links, where the current page is mentioned, are shown at the top.

New Shortcuts

The plus sign and two square brackets will start a new page or link to a current page. The plus sign is used to create a new page. Two square brackets are used to reference pages. The at sign can be used to do both, but also be used to mention people and dates.

Content living with other Content

Have a task or item that you want to reference on another page or database? Well, now it can live everywhere. Going from a database to pages. A to-do or bullet from a page could be put into a database or another page.

Templates

I am pretty sure there is a template for everyone. Notion created and community created templates. From personal setups to even engineering scrums, there is a template for any type of setup you need.

Notion vs

Asana

Asana is a project management tool and Notion is that plus more. Asana is aimed to help keep track of tasks and projects for teams. But Notion offers the same thing. Notion can be the hub of everything that a team needs.

I wrote a post on how I use Asana, Notion, and Bujo, and guess what: I don’t use Asana anymore. It became tedious to take the project name and dates just to have them appear on my calendar. Now I just add them to my calendar, removing Asana from the equation.

Databases

Using Notion as a database is close to using Excel or Sheets. I don’t use a database in the traditional way you would for Excel. I use it to organize projects and tasks. Notion has the capability to be as powerful as Excel.

ClickUp

ClickUp is different from Asana and Trello. It tries to do what Notion does as far as having multiple views. It also integrates with your calendar app. ClickUp is constantly changing to fit any project needs. Somehow, this app is getting closer to be like Notion. Documents so you can type out thoughts and important notes. The setup is still confusing but there are templates to help you get started.

How I Am Using Notion Now

Nothing’s changed since my last post. No, something did change. I quit using Asana and ClickUp. Notion is my official hub for everything except documents. Since the block count is not relevant anymore, I have no limit on what I can do in Notion. I have come to rely on Notion’s notifications for reminders for tasks and due dates. Even though dues dates mean nothing to me. I still move those dates back further. At least I won’t forget about the task altogether.

Organizing Projects

Databases serve a great purpose. This is the center for project management. The database can be viewed as a table, board, list, calendar, or gallery. It can have filters for each view, showing certain fields. So having everything in one database and filtered helps with managing projects.

Take your project and go deeper within a page. Give details for the project. Make to-dos and notes. Just make a brain dumping ground for the project. Organize the page layout by putting blocks in columns.

At first, I just put everything into one database and categorized each item based on a project or topic. Then I saw a video from Thomas Frank on how he set up his workspace. I went and got this template and started using it. I threw out my system and used his. He set up the databases as notebooks. So each notebook represented a subject in his life. There was a page where each notebook was filtered with the important items. If you need some direction on where to go for your Notion setup, you should go and check out his template and other templates that are available to duplicate and make your own.

I have also created a hub for all the information and notes for my life. There is a page for my blog and website and a page for web development. These pages have links and notes that pertain to these topics. Everything is sorted into lists that helps keep things organized.

Here’s the post from 2019:

Why Notion, But Why Not?.

Notion and Asana + Bullet Journaling

Midyear Web Dev Plan

Jessica Chambers — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 21:50:40 +0000

With a midyear summary, there must be a mid-year project update. A more detailed inside on the projects that I have been working on.

In the midst of starting a new job, I have stopped coding. I stopped my day once I clock out. Starring at a screen intensely for hours, makes me want to sit in the dark. And that’s what I’ve been doing after work. I feel like I am adjusting to where my eyes don’t hurt. I started working in the dark with no lights on. I don’t need to see while working, so no lights need to be on.

My new plan going forward

No working on the weekend
No late afternoon shifts; try to finish by 3 pm
Start small, gain momentum
Code on the weekend more because coding during the week may be hard

Coding Projects

30 Days 30 Sites

Keep learning while coding, I have decided to learn something new or watch a new tutorial before starting a new webpage. I wanted to add some new elements to the webpages I was creating. I didn’t want it to be the same thing over and over.

Learning New Elements

Starting out, I want to review a Sass tutorial. I don’t think I fully got what I can do with this the first time I learned this. So I am going through another tutorial and maybe every webpage created going forward will use Sass. I don’t know why, but I have to do a tutorial every time I try to use CSS Grid. Fifth times a charm guess. I want to Designing webpages and coding them properly. My Figma designs are aligning with my coding and I want to make this process more efficient. There are also adding transitions, animations, and some JavaScript functions to add my projects.

An Update to 2020

Jessica Chambers — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 23:24:02 +0000

2020 is a shitty year. It takes the cake. No other year can compete. I want to focus on what happened and my goals going forward this year. For a full reminder for what I set out to do this year, read the post below. Otherwise keep reading, this covers the same thing.

2020: Bringing in a New Decade

Well, the start of the decade comes with a pandemic, racial injustice, and a government (and president) that clearly is lost about how to handle all of this. The pandemic has shown how disorganized the government is and what they truly care about. Racial injustice has always been an issue and will not go anywhere anytime soon. We are still arguing about whether racism exists and to what degree does racism exists.

Coding Goals

Start learning React

I wanted to use the first 6 months creating React projects. That goal has changed. I went through a tutorial and was lost trying to make changes to it. React will be something to come back towards the end of the year.

Create a blog website

I created a blog site using Stackbit and Dev.to. This was easy to do, just follow the instructions and you will have a working live site. I then wanted to change the site around as far as colors, and layout of the menus. I will eventually add my portfolio to the site. The next goal for the site is to buy a domain name.

Use Figma for web design and planning out web pages and projects

I started using Figma to design my web sites. It’s free and it works great. I even redesigned my logo and banners with Figma. I want to get into doing posters and graphics in Figma sometime this year.

Projects — 30 Days 30 Sites

Why I Started 30 Days 30 Sites…Again

I came back to this project to revise the sites that I did and to finish the ones that I never started. So I have revised and updated 6 sites. This project has slowed so that I can learn new things. The goal is to learn something and design the webpage. Then make the site around that new thing I learned. I want to add more JavaScript functions to these sites.

Blogging

I wanted to write a blog post once a month and that’s what I have been doing. Check out the rest of my posts if you want. There has been a couple of months where I have posted twice. A couple of my posts on Medium have reached 1k views. That’s nice to see, people reading or at least viewing my posts. Thanks to those who are reading them.

Get a Bill paying Job

I started a new job in June. It’s work from home, you don’t have to leave your home because of the pandemic, we were always a remote type of job. So there has been a struggle in finding a job for me. I have lowered my qualifications to find a job. It was hard. I was looking for a job like this for over 2 years and been looking for a job for 4 years.

So this year outside of the obvious things have been good. Coding projects are slowly coming along. Blog posts are being put out at a regular pace. Hopefully, getting through the rest of the year goes well. I’m keeping positive and reasonable thoughts through this.

Smaller Goals

Books

Books read this year: 10

Reading goal for 2020: Read 15 book

Best book read so far: With the Fire on High and Becoming

I lost access to Libby at the start of this pandemic. This left me without the ability to read books for 3 months. Libraries were closed and phones weren’t being answered. Having your library card expire through a pandemic was rough. So now I am using Hoopla and Cloud Library with a library card for the city I’m currently in, so I don’t have to worry about getting the card renewed.

Painting

I started painting this year. I brought paint awhile back and have started painting. It’s just simple paintings, nothing that’s great. I just wanted to find a hobby that didn’t involve a screen. Something away from the Internet and phone.

Japanese

I decided to learn Japanese so that I can follow along with anime without the subtitles. So far, I have learned Hiragana and Katakana, along with some basic phrases. I am working at this slowly. It has taken 6 months just to learn Hiragana and Katakana. I won’t be recognizing any words off the back but, I can recognize most Hiragana when I see it.

So, how has your 2020 been treating you? Any new skills acquired, new binge watchable shows? Focus on the positive things that this year has brought you so that you can get through the rest of the year.

Life Outside of Coding

Jessica Chambers — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 14:01:03 +0000

Photo by Matt Brown on Unsplash

Taking a break from coding or designing websites can be the best thing that you can do for yourself. You do not want to feel overwhelmed and stressed. This is something a lot of people struggle with, knowing when to take that official break. I’m not talking about standing up and walking around type of break. I’m talking about a long break for a great period of time. A 3 day break or a 1 day break or a week break. Just take a moment and not code for a day.

Struggling on a problem for long periods of time can be stressful. That problem will get solved and you will finish that project that has been taking up most of your time and headspace. It becomes the only thing you worry about and it becomes too much at one time. So taking time away is best after a long or stressful project.

Find a hobby or an activity to do so that you are not overworking yourself. Most people have something that they would consider fun, less stressful and low effort for them. Activities that do not make you sigh or pull your hair out.

Go to a game, bar, party, park or a mini vacation. Read, play video, card, or board games. Knit a sweater. Whatever you can do, just get away from your coding space or office, mentally and physically.

Hobbies

There are a lot of things that I do outside of coding that I enjoy and consider these activities to be a low effort on my part to do. I tend to do all of the fun activities in the morning and code during the midday to late afternoon.

Reading

For example, I love to read. I read every day. Anytime I put up my phone, I tend to open the Kindle app and read for 10 minutes. Sometimes, I just read on for really long time. It is almost like binge watching your favorite show. It takes me a while to read most books because I read slowly.

Video Games

I enjoy video games. My favorite game of all time is Grand Theft Auto. This game is a great stress reliever. Commit any crime, run from the cops, lose your stars, and start over. It’s just something about running people over in your (stolen) car and blowing stuff up.

But lately, I have gotten into Minecraft. I paid for this game and I was going to get my money’s worth. I can play this game for a good 2 hours before stopping. I don’t play survival mode. I have never beaten the Ender Dragon. I have never been to the End. I hate spiders and can’t stand to look at them. So I have a creative world, where I build and explore the world.

YouTube

YouTube is the new TV. I don’t watch cable TV. There are some quality YouTube channels out there that make cable seem like a waste of money. I mainly watch gaming channels. There are even GTA skits. I spend at least 4 hours a day on YouTube. Not everything I watch is for entertainment. There are channels that have the sole purpose of learning and information gathering.

Drawing

I love drawing. I wish I did more of it. But I don’t. This is starting to change. By buying a new laptop, I can finally use the Bamboo Create and Pen Tablet that I brought over 5 years ago. I found an application to draw in and I am getting into digital art.

What can I do to not be overwhelmed with everything?

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Don’t go rushing into the next one.

For those developers and designers that do side projects, put in some time between projects. Maybe a day or two. Finish a project on Friday and have the weekend to yourself. On Monday, start planning out the next one in detail. Just refresh your mind.

Even with projects that take over 3 months to complete, maybe take the weekends off. Only code during the weekdays. Those breaks from being inside of your head can be good.

Don’t forget to come back to code.

Martin’s System for Habit Tracking

Jessica Chambers — Sun, 17 May 2020 20:48:07 +0000

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

I watched a video earlier this year by Thomas Frank called A Better Way to Track Your Habits. This video shows how Martin tracks his habits and adjusts his needs on a biweekly basis. Tracking your habits can keep you on point with goals that you are trying to start or build.

It’s an analog method (paper). It is pretty simple. Start off with 15 days, which is two weeks. This is a short amount of time, which allows you to adjust habits and start small. Reaching the two week targets is easier than reaching a one year target or even a month.

How to Start

I usually start on the first of each month for each cycle. 15 days. Make note of the habits you want to track.

How many habits?
How often do you plan on doing each habit within the 15 days?

List the days across the page from 1 to 15 or the corresponding days that you will be tracking. List the habit, when, how often, and how long you want the habit to be.

If it’s a daily habit, draw 15 boxes for each day. If the habit occurs less than daily, draw a box for the corresponding day. And on that day, mark off the habit. Use the picture below for reference.

The way Tom explains it, is to only draw boxes for the days that you want to do each habit. So it’s not confusing what days to do each habit. But if you drew 15 boxes, cross out or darken the days that don’t matter.

Tracking the Habits:

Failure : -

Complete : +

Neutral : o

At the end of each day, take a moment and think about your habits. Did you complete all of them? Were you a little sluggish for one? Did you not bother at all?

For completed habits, use a + and for failed habits, use a -. Use neutral marks, o, when things that are out of your control prevent you from doing the habit.

If you wanted to create a webpage or code, and your computer doesn’t work. Then this would count as a neutral.
You broke your leg and you were trying to exercise more, neutral.
Worked a 15 hour shift instead of 10 and couldn’t get to doing your habits, neutral.

Screenshot of Martin’s System from Thomas Frank

Timing Your Habits

Leave room under or above each rectangle to label each habit. You will want to quantify the amount of time you want to allocate for each habit. Will you work for 15 or 30 minutes? Are you trying to workout for 20 minutes? Reaching a certain number of push-ups? Write that amount down.

If you don’t know how to quantify your habits because you have no idea how long or much you can do, start small. Go for 10 minutes or 5 jumping jacks. If it’s exercise, do it until you can’t anymore. And if you go over that amount, good. Track how much you do this cycle and average it out. That’s how much time is needed for the next cycle.

At the end or beginning of each day, note whether you did the habit or not by filling in the corresponding box. Jot down any thoughts or reasons you did or did not complete the habit. If you were lazy, unmotivated, busy, or worked a 20 hours shift, write it down. This will help you with the next 15 days.

What to do after 15 days?

Get ready for the next 15 days. Do the exact same thing. But this time, you want to adjust your habits.

Tried something for the first time, and it wasn’t what you expected. There’s no need to keep trying habits that you no longer want to do. Unless it’s meant to be a health thing, then you might want to rethink it.
Didn’t quite put in as much time as you wanted or needed, add on more time.
Was the habit easy or hard to complete each time, try changing the amount of time or how often you do it.
Want to try something new this time around, do it. But don’t add too many habits at one time. Try to get comfortable with doing the current habits first and then add more when ready. I would advise 3 habits to start with and add 1 on as you go.

By taking notes each day on each habit, you are able to reflect on what’s working and what’s not working and why. The why is the most important part of keeping a habit going. If you are excited about it, you just might make it into a good habit.

Tracking this way also makes you consider your schedule. Making room for these habits can be easy if you know what you are doing throughout the day and week. You can find time for your habits. If you have a different schedule each week or biweekly, adjusting your habits can be moved around with your schedule.

My 8 Cycles of Martin’s System

Every 15 days is one cycle. Since I saw this video, I had to try it. I did do a good job of doing the habits, just not a good job of tracking them. I would go days without tracking and making notes. Then with the days I do track habits, I don’t have anything to say about. I wanted to write a few words about the day, just to see how I felt about doing or not doing the habit.

My overall impression is that this system works, for me anyways. The layout of the page is a way to make me want to look how far I have come with each habit. I can keep track of how I felt about each day. Whether I want to complete a habit or not. I know what to move around and how to adjust when habits are not working out or I need more of a challenge.

The past few weeks have been hard to track habits. I didn’t remember that I would be doing different things this month, May. I am taking a break from coding to work on my blog and website. I want to define more goals and make a new logo. I want to give my online self an update. So the habits have been off. So far since this month started, I haven’t done too much of the habits and plus I have not been tracking them either.

But you may find this method helpful in getting you to starting your goals. If you already do some kind of journaling, this would just be an add-on to your notebook. If this something that helped you out, let me know in the comments.

CSS Grid Crash Course

Jessica Chambers — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 20:03:02 +0000

Making a tutorial or a post explaining something that I learned is something I wanted to do but had not idea how to do it. So here's the start.

Made by following along with this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV8B24rSN5o

Why I Started 30 Days 30 Sites…Again

Jessica Chambers — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 16:01:01 +0000

What is 30 Days 30 Sites?

30 Days 30 Sites is a challenge to complete a webpage each day for 30 days. I received an email each day with a prompt to create a site. Click the link below if you want to give it a try.

30 Days 30 Sites Sign Up

Photo by Kevin Bhagat on Unsplash

The First Go Around

I did not complete this challenge in 30 days and I did not complete this 30 sites. In the first 5 prompts, I completed them in a day. Then there were other things that I wanted to do with the sites that I had no clue how to do. I wanted to do a different layout for each site. I didn’t want it to be just a square layout. I wanted to put more into the design aspect of the sites. So it would take more than just a day worth of coding to put these together. I expanded to 2 to 3 days instead of one.

Then I ran out of creative juice and motivation. I got to day 20 and stopped. I didn’t want to do this anymore. I wanted to learn more and do more tutorials. I was in about a month of learning when I found 30 Days 30 Sites. Then I went to do more tutorials and worked on Free Code Camp more.

The Second Attempt

This year, I decided that I hated how the home page that I created looks. It was also made with Bootstrap, which then was easier to do than to figure it out with other ways. Flexbox and CSS Grid were unheard of to me at the time. The colors are awful and I did not fill in any information. It is just lorem text on the list page. So I will be working on fixing and redesigning web pages. Once I’m done with that, I will fix the list and home page.

Wire frame for redesign homepage

Potential layout for list of sites

Second option for layout of lists

Another thing that I am realizing as I go through the HTML and CSS files is how unorganized the code is written. It’s kind of confusing going through the HTML file and try to figure out why certain classes have the names that were chosen. The CSS file is just a mess. I did not put it in any kind of order. I usually do tags at the top and as classes and ids as they appear in the HTML file. I try to keep the order so when I need to look for one in the other file, I know where to find it.

The goal this round is to finish all the 30 sites. There is no time limit for any given site, but finishing within a week would be nice.

Here’s the current link to the live site, so you can see how bad it looks. Leave some feedback in the comments, if you look at the site.

30 Days 30 Sites

j14chambers / 30days30sites

Part of the 30 Days 30 Sites Challenge. Create a webpage or website each day.

P.S. The links on the home page do not work, so click on view all to see any of the sites.