Category: Natsuko’s Blog

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Is Speed Matter for Reading

For a long time, I had thought that it was always better to read ever faster. Curiosity was the biggest drive to read for me. I have read a lot of books, articles, and journals. When I understand a concept, my heart rates rise. Then, I feel immense joy from understanding a concept. I become satisfied, but I will repeat this cycle.

One day, I began to suspect that my reading method may not be good enough. I often have trouble remembering the source of the supporting ideas, so it takes me a long time to find the actual research. I started to feel this more strongly when I began to write seriously.

The most disturbing thing was that I should have a tremendous amount of knowledge from cumulative research because I read many books or journals in the past. The reality is that I do not recall most of the things I learned from these books. It is because our memory is short-lived unless we put them into long-term memory.

I thought reviewing some pointers after reading the books helped me to remember them long-term. During my first reading, I highlight the critical points of the book in my kindle, and I review them in a few days. 

Unfortunately, this system did not work well. There were so many books in my kindle that I could not maintain the reviewing system. So, I created a system, which forces me to reexamine the highlighted items from books I read. These highlighting notes help me find the source of a concept as long as I remember which books held the highlighted items.

The primary benefit of reading fast is I can surface-read books quickly. I can read a lot of books or other materials for research purposes. If your objective of reading is to enjoy casual reading, there is no problem reading fast. I can finish multiple books in a day if I want to do so. However, the effects stop at the extent of surface reading. I may not remember stories or things I learned a few days later.

If I want to make my reading more meaningful and effective, I must exercise a more active reading strategy. For example, to perform literary analysis, I must put conscious effort into recognizing the pattern while reading. Unless I am actively seeking and reevaluating the reading materials for relevance to what I need, no amount of reading is good for me. I would rather sleep more or exercise. No matter how fast you can read the materials, it is not as helpful as you think.

To exercise active reading, I started to take notes directly onto kindle. Rephrasing is a powerful method to understand the texts you are reading. It helps me to retain certain concepts for the long term. Then, I faced another challenge. My notes were still all over my kindle books. Unless I start reviewing all of them periodically, the knowledge will fade away from my memory. I still need to remember which book each note belongs to use as a source.

Smart Note Taking Techniques You Can Use While You Are Reading

One day, I found an excellent book, “How to Take Smart Notes,” written by Sonke Ahrens. The book taught me to effectively read books and retain the knowledge to use them later. According to Ahrens, you will need to do the following steps:

Take temporary notes as you read. Taking quick notes helps you to retain the information you just obtained. Ahrens suggests that handwriting is better since it takes a longer time to write than typing. It takes a long time to type in kindle unless I use a PC to read a digital. So, you will become selective of which information you keep as a note. So, I use the kindle note function.

Summarize the temporary notes in your own words within a day after the quick notes are created. Brief notes are temporary. You must elaborate the note in your own words, which reinforces the ideas. I HAD TO REREAD THE SECTION when I did these steps a few days after my initial notetaking. So, I found it is faster to do this process within a day.

Classify the summarized notes. Sonke explained that students seem to retain what they learn better when the professor teaches unorganized materials. I do a similar step for organizing my 10-page notes every day. Organizing unclassified information helps you to retain the information better not only digitally but also in your brain.

Tag the notes to other notes you have created. Using software such as Zotero, you can easily tag other notes while making a permanent note. Ahrens explains that making cross-references requires serious thinking, and it helps us develop our thought about the idea (p. 112).

Think about what is not in the text and add them to your note. This process requires additional effort to process the information. You dive further into the text since you are now challenging and creating your idea against the new data you are learning. Unfortunately, I rarely do this process.

I use Zotero to make my permanent notes. I can create my categories and sort all my permanent notes. The use of the software made my life much easier. It can add the info of the reading material for future bibliographies. You can also organize and tag the note to link it to another note. Finally, the use of the software is free.

The new process takes a lot more time to read a single book. In some cases, I may read the section multiple times to create a decent permanent note. These extra steps made me more selective of the information I intended to retain. The important thing is I start synthesizing the new information more thoroughly than before.

Conclusion

There is one thing I am still working on is thinking about what is not in the text. This process is challenging and time-consuming so that I tend to get lazy. Maybe I may create a habit of adding one idea of my own to a note per day.

If someone asks me whether they need to learn speed reading, I would say no. Instead, I recommend that they find a way to retain the information gained from the book just like I did. No increase in the number of books one can read is helpful if you forget what you read.

Reference

Ahrens, S. (2017). How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking—For Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book writers.[kindle edition].

Zotero’s Link

https://www.zotero.org/

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How to Improve Your English Writing Skills even English is not Your Mother Tongue

English is not my first language, and English writing was among my communication fears. Unlike face-to-face communication methods, a reader cannot see my body language, accommodating my broken English. Despite the challenge, I wanted to write in English. I wrote a lot when I was younger in Japanese, my mother tongue. Soon after I migrated to North America, I tried to write in English. It was tough because I did not have enough knowledge of vocabulary or idioms. When you do not know which word to use, you end up using more words to explain. My sentences were wordy and hard to understand.

It was utterly inconvenient to be unable to communicate fluently. All of your communication is not as effective. Furthermore, some people treated me as an unintelligent person. I think many immigrants have a similar experience. When I was young, I even cried from the frustration caused by my broken English. Although, I was hesitant to improve my English writing skills because it was hard for me to write in English. Then, I finally started work on my writing seriously a little over a year ago.

First, I listed the item that I needed to improve to develop some strategies to work on them.

Spelling: Like most Japanese, I still have difficulty distinguishing between “R” and “L,” which negatively affects my spelling. I also mixed spelling conventions from multiple languages, such as German and French.

Preposition: My knowledge of idioms is still limited, and I have many preposition errors.

Syntax:  I have trouble finding the appropriate word to express something.

English Grammar: I still make many grammatical errors: such as missing articles and comma splices.

Fear of writing: My biggest block was my fear of writing.

I must be conscious of learning words, idioms, and spelling when I read. In terms of grammar, I need to be aware of making mistakes. So, I bought the Grammarly app subscription – this is the best purchase I ever made. My last obstacle, fear of writing, was a little tricky to overcome. I thought I had to write a lot in English to overcome the fear.

After activating the Grammarly subscription, I started to write a few paragraphs every day. The average word count of a piece was between 150 to 300. I knew my speed of writing was extremely slow when I was in a graduate program. Just as I suspected, it took me at least 3 hours to write 150-300 words.

One of the most significant pieces of help using Grammarly gave me immediate feedback on my grammatical errors. I already knew that I was terrible at using proper articles. I often misuse prepositions. Some prepositions don’t make sense to me at all. Grammarly gives me weekly feedback on how I am doing with my writing. I started to see improvements.

Despite these efforts, I faced another obstacle – I was too conscious of my grammatical errors to write a paragraph. As a result, I experienced something close to writer’s block. On some days, I might spend 4 hours writing merely one hundred words. Even I managed to produce a single paragraph in English, and my sentences are monotone – soulless sentences. As soon as I tried to write, my brain started rebelling– this was how I felt. With frustration, I stopped writing for a while.

Then, I read a book, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. After reading the book, I started writing 2-3 pages on an A4 size notebook, anything that came to my mind every morning. According to the author, I am not supposed to be showing the notes to anyone. Since I was handwriting, I did not have to stop to correct errors. Then, I stopped caring about my English errors. Who cares? No one sees the book anyway. And this is the time I began to be able to write again. It took me about three months or so to get rid of the writer’s block. I assume that I was writing in my logical brain, which killed my creative brain, just like Julia Cameron pointed out in the book.

After few months, I began to share my writing with my husband. My husband is a native English speaker with good writing skills. He started giving me some advice by editing my essays. He also advised me on word choice. He majored in Rhetoric at University, so he gave me Rhetoric advice on my writing. Getting help from my husband was a big help.

I also started to highlight my kindle vocabulary, idioms, and expressions. I was not about to plagiarism them, but I wanted to use them in my writing. I tried to steal like a good artist, just like Austin Kleon wrote in his book, Steal Like an Artist.

Then, I started writing a blog in English last March. I committed to writing one English blog per week. I am aware that my English is nowhere near perfect. I cannot tell whether my English is truly improving; however, Grammarly’s weekly reports show I create much fewer errors than I used to make a year ago. Most importantly, I don’t hesitate to write in English. I sometimes even feel joy from writing.

1st week

1st week

1 year later

Grammarly after 1 year later

The last week (1 year & 4 months)

Grammarly Weekly Report

Of course, writing a lot is not the only solution to improving your writing. I am not going to say how many words you should be writing to improve your English. Great writers often write a lot. My husband loves to read Brandon Sanderson. According to Ang (Aug 2020), Sanderson writes 2,000-2,500 words per day. Faulkner wrote 3,000 – 10,000 words per day. So, I just wrote a lot. I wrote more English than when I was in a graduate program. There is no shortcut to improve writing skills. It is daunting to even think about investing a lot of time on something we cannot tell ourselves whether we improve or not.

An app like Grammarly helps get some qualitative measurement. There were weeks that my accuracy declined. There were weeks I could not write a lot because I was busy doing something else. Rather than focusing on the week’s result, I focused on how many words I had written since April 20th. I still make many grammatical errors, but I started to see substantial improvement in my grammar.

Most importantly, I have more confidence in my writing. I started submitting more business cases since I could write them in a shorter time. Any task that involves writing became easier to complete. There is no age limit to start improving your writing skill. If I can improve my language at my age, then so you can.

Creativity is a critical part of writing. Writing a lot may not help me much. Although, the morning page technique seems to work. So, I am still doing 2-3 morning pages of writing every morning because it helps me be more creative.

It is more important to understand how to use words, idioms, or expressions rather than knowing them. I try to use the word in any of my writing, idioms, and expressions I highlight from any reading I do. Then, I show it to my husband. He will tell me something if I misuse the word.

There is no shortcut to improving English writing skills – it seems. Although, I have great news. There is no age limit to start working on improving your writing skill. If I can improve my writing skill at my age, and so can you. It never is “too late” to start a project like this.

References

Ang, Alvin. (Aug 17, 2020). 10 Legendary Writers & Their Daily Word Counts.https://writingcooperative.com/10-legendary-writers-their-daily-word-counts-692c56cb97a5

Cameron, Julia (2016). The Artist’s Way. [Kindle Edition]. Penguin Random House

Kleon, Austin (2012). Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. [Kindle Edition]. Workman Publishing Company.

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Revisiting Spirit Away

I recently watched “Sprit Away – English version.” I had previously watched Spirit Away almost two decades ago. I recalled it as an exciting adventure film with few messages such as environmental stewardship and greed.  My niece recently started watching Miyazaki’s movies, my neighbor Totoro and Ponyo, which made me want to watch Miyazaki’s films again.

It is interesting to discover how our cumulative experience and knowledge influence our perspective toward books or movies. This time, I had a different view of this film from the last time I watched it. The characters were carefully developed throughout the story. Miyazaki intentionally leaves some essential elements blank so that anyone can fill them in. Now everyone has different interpretations of the movie. After I re-watched this movie, I decided to do a literary analysis on this film from a Japanese perspective. For this blog, I focused on the following two points of the film.

–       Who is Haku?

–       What is the hidden motivation of the main character?

It is critical to understand the relationship of Chihiro to her parents before talking about Haku. Chihiro seems to have affection toward both of her parents just like a child, while her mother is distant to Chihiro. The mother did not show concern for Chihiru’s safety. For example, the mother did not check whether Chihiro passed the creek safely or not. In the scary place, Chihiro was disturbed. Just as a typical child would do, Chihiro held onto the arms of her mother. Instead of holding the daughter’s hand, the mother complained not to cling to her arm, which was an un-motherly-like behavior.

The next important character in this movie is Haku, the river god who helps her. Haku appeared in front of Chihiro early in the film, right after her parents turned into pigs. Miyazaki left Haku’s appearance in front of Chihiro ambiguous, so we must fill the detail ourselves.

When Chihiro returned the golden seal to Zeniba, Zeniba told Chihiro the spell on it was gone. Then, Zeniba exclaimed that only love could break her spell. What kind of love was that? Why was Haku so willing to help Chihiro from the beginning of her adventure? When we think about these questions, was there “a biological love” between them. Haku was Chihiro’s brother? Sometimes these spirits (Kami) can be created from people’s wishes. Sometimes spirits are created when one sacrifices one’s life for another.

When I was young, my grandmother told me a story about a girl who lost her way in the woods. She ended up among many flowers where she met an older woman there who said to the girl,

Do you see teardrops on the flower?

A girl somewhere just gave her food to her younger sisters, even though she was also starving.

Do you see the tear, that is the tear from the girl?

Do you see the mountain?

A man sacrificed his life to save the villagers. So, he became a mountain.

When people sacrifice something, they make a flower to grow.

When people sacrifice their lives, they turn into Mountains.

Now, go home.

There are reasons why I think Haku was Chihiro’s biological brother. Haku seems willing to risk his life to save Chihiro from the beginning, yet Haku remembers nothing except Chihiro’s name. Zeniba told Chihiro that the spell was removed because of love. Zeniba repeated “Love” twice, and this is important.

When Chihiro was riding on Haku, the dragon, fragments of memories flashed through her head – her pink shoes were carried away by the river’s current.  Then, there is a hand with a white T-shirt that pulled her from the river. Chihiro wondered why she could not recall the memory earlier. Chihiro almost died from drowning in the past, and he could not remember it. It is documented that some traumatic events can create memory loss associated with the traumatic events. Health professionals address the symptom as Trauma-related dissociation, a survival mechanism of forgetting the event that is so overwhelming that one can no longer cope (International Society for Study of Trauma and Dissociation, n.d.). With few seconds of information, I could formulate the following hypothesis.

When Chihiro was younger, she nearly drowned in a river. Her brother, Haku, drowned in the river when he was trying to save Chihiro. With the overwhelming traumatic event of near-death experience and the loss of her brother, Chihiro could not remember the event at all. Chihiro’s mother is distant subconsciously because she somehow felt that Chihiro was responsible for her son’s death. According to Foster (2003), there are some common personality traits – they tend to be responsible for the death of someone close. This trait is not clearly stated in the text, so we need to fill in this blank to make sense of the character. Unfortunately, the characters, such as Haku, are rarely the protagonist. Instead, their death is often used to move the plot forward.

After sacrificing his life for his sister, Haku turned into the Kohaku River. Haku is the river’s name. Spirits don’t remember their name, why they died or what they were doing before they turned into a spirit. After sacrificing his life for his sister, Haku turned into the Kohaku River. Haku is the river’s name. Spirits don’t remember their name, why they died or what they were doing before becoming a spirit. Chihiro says that the Kohaku River no longer exists because of the new apartment complexes where the river used to be. It must be at least a few years that have passed since the traumatic event. Her parents are moving away from the old town to start a new life to rebuild the family relationship because some family problems are incurred from their son’s death. They may be moving because the river no longer exists.

Chihiro starts her adventure to save her parents, then to save Haku. These are the stated motivation of the heroes in the movie. There is a common trait among parents, Chihiro, and Haku in the spirit world. All of them seek an establishment place. Chihiro and her parents are moving away from the home they lived. Haku lost the river he used to haunt. I think the hidden motivation of the hero was to find the next place to inhabit. Since Chihiro could not remember her brother’s death, she moves forward (grown) by placing how someone sacrificed his life for her in the past.

Neither parents nor Chihiro will have a clear memory of their disappearance. They will continue with their life after they moved into a new home.

In Japan, many folklores spoke about Kamikakushi, spirited away. The Japanese title of this movie is “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakishi.” Kamikakushi means “hidden by the gods,” and people often use the word to explain the disappearance of people and their reappearance. Many returned with either fuzzy memories or no memories of their disappearance. The folktales were made so that the parents or people close to the missing people could deal with the tragic disappearance of someone they love (Matsuura, 2019).

There is personal development in Chihiro her adventures in the spirit world. When Chihiro’s father said to Chihiro,” A new home and a new school? It is a bit Scary”, Chihiro replied. “I think I can handle it.” We will never know whether she remembers her past after she is out from the spirit world. She may remember her traumatic events. Even she remembers her traumatic event, and I feel that Chihiro could make peace in her mind to move on with her life. I think Haku left the spirit world where he was trapped and came back to Chihiro’s world to protect her as her protective spirit (Shyugorei) just as promised to Zeniba – This is an ending I imagined after revisiting the film.

This is the second time I did a literary analysis. Literature is just like art. The key to understanding the literature is the motivation behind the techniques the creator intentionally used. Miyazaki left out what happened to them or Haku for the movie. So, this will be up to the audience to fill in the blank – that is the exciting part of literary analysis. And, it is interesting to find out how I come up with a different perspective from what I remembered from 20 years ago.

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How to Learn in a Digital Environment

There are multiple ways to learn. The introduction of Internet technology enables us to gather knowledge online. When I was young, accessing the internet was expensive since we were charged by the minute. I still remember it took us almost 6 hours to download low-grade pictures. Although the internet was more accessible when I was in the university, the students used a hybrid way (library in person or online) to do their academic research. I still can’t forget how excited I was to access academic journals from the online library. By the time I was doing my MBA, most people exclusively used the internet for their research. 

We can gain many types of information from the internet. I do not have to physically go to a library to access journal or newspaper articles. You can quickly learn the name of a capital city of a country. I admit my life changed because of the internet; however, I sometimes fear I skipped a fundamental step of the learning process, such as creating my hypothesis or acquiring foundational knowledge of a subject. I admit that the internet enhanced our lives in many ways, yet I sometimes fear losing something due to acquiring convenience. 

When I was a child, we once had a big argument about why frogs lay eggs over the water surface. Most of us were eight-year-olds. Since we lived in a tiny city in Japan, we knew we could always find frog eggs over a still creek near our school. The argument started with a simple question from one of the children. We used to catch Tadpoles in the water; we all agreed that eggs must be over the water’s surface. But how do all frogs know where to lay eggs? We had an excellent, elementally teacher who encouraged us to discuss a child’s questions. Instead of answering the question, she told all of us to find out the reason. I checked the school library and my father’s library. I pulled out the encyclopedia and looked for the answer. I do not remember whether I found out the answer by myself this time. I do remember how hungry I was to find out the answers. I think the experience impacted me immensely later in my academic life. 

I found out later in my life that my school teacher guided us to understand why a frog lays eggs above the water surface by using Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s Taxonomy elaborates the framework of the six levels of learning stages. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy (as cited in Armstrong, n.d.), we go through six cognitive levels: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. 

Figure 1. Bloom’s Taxonomy Vanderbilt Center for Teaching

Knowledge: Recognize or Remember facts, terms, or basic concepts without understanding why.

Comprehension: Demonstrate or Understand the reasons behind the facts, terms, or fundamental concepts.

Application: You can apply acquired knowledge to solve problems in a new situation.

Analysis: You can analyze and connect or differentiate the facts, terms, or basic concepts in a single dimension.

Synthesis: You can connect the facts, terms, or basic concepts with multiple dimensions.

Evaluation: You can evaluate ideas or create or plan a new idea or a product from facts, terms, or basic concepts.

It would be easier if the teacher just answered the children’s questions; however, we would have stopped at the first cognitive level, knowledge. A year before, we came up with an identical question with a different teacher. The teacher scolded us for discussing something irrelevant to the subject. I was fortunate to have a teacher who motivated us to think and research. Remembering my early school year learning experience prompted me to question whether current children get this learning experience since they can obtain answers very conveniently from the internet.

Finding quick answers from the internet can easily prevent us from progressing in our cognitive level of information if we are not careful. The use of the internet can make completing our assignments efficient; however, I am not sure of the effectiveness of the learning. I have no desire to quit using the internet since it is convenient; however, we must be mindful of how we integrate technology into our learning process. 

I understand the theory behind Bloom’s Taxonomy, yet, I caught myself getting easy answers from the internet. A YouTube channel shows dropping an ant from 10m, 20m, and 30m. The show was demonstrating terminal velocity, and nothing happened to the ant. I should have known the theory since I learned it in my undergrad. Instead of putting my effort into understanding the idea, I was satisfied finding the terminology. 

My husband, who teaches at a university, told me that finding out “what” from the internet would help us think about the idea or information ourselves. It would be ideal to think about the idea before finding out the “why”. Processing the information with the concept first helps us identify what we need to find out from further research. Now, you have more purposes or objectives, and you can progress into the 2nd cognitive level of comprehension. Of course, we still need to be careful about biases caused by doing so; but it still enables us to progress to a higher cognitive level. 

There is nothing wrong with using the internet, but we must be mindful of how we use it to acquire our knowledge. There are steps I use to prevent my experience of acquiring information from limiting my knowledge. Once I obtain the information, I rephrase the concept within one day. Then, I categorize the idea; then, I link it to other information I acquired previously. I used to do this process on paper with great difficulty. Now I use Zotero, a computer application, to do this process. It is a free app until you become a heavy user. I discovered this software from a book, How to Take Smart Notes from Sonke Ahrens. This made me re-think how I learn. If you get a chance, it is a good book to read.

References

Ahrens, S. (2017). How to take smart notes: one simple technique to boost writing, learning and thinking – for students, academics and nonfiction book writers. [Kindle Edition]. North Charleston

Armstrong, P. (n.d.). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

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The Important Lesson I Learned from Losing Weight Quickly

Background

To improve my physical and mental condition, I decided to work on changing my lifestyle. I started with dancing Zumba on my switch, and I gradually made changes. My goal is to lose weight without losing my muscle mass. I implemented formal strength training offered by Les Mills into my exercise program in June. I have been exercising mindful eating for the last few months. Since the rate of losing weight was so slow, I decided to switch back to the calorie restriction. I started with creating 500 calories deficit per week.

My Exercise Program

 MONTUEWEDTHURFRISATSUN
MorningRestBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPBODYFLOW
Evening HIIT HIIT HIIT 
My Exercise Program (Les Mills On-Demand)

HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) – 17minutes training – generates 40-45 minutes of activity minutes

BODYPUMP – 30 minutes -> generates 22 minutes of activity minutes

BODYSTEPS – 30 minutes -> generates 60-65 minutes of activities minutes

BODYCOMBAT – 30 minutes -> generates 60-70 minutes of activities minutes

BODYATTACK – 30 minutes -> generates 65-75 minutes of activities minutes

Result

The biggest change I did this time was creating 400-500 calories deficits per day to lose weight. I lost a total weight of 4.4lb. (2.8lb, 1.4lb, 0.2, 0.2lb) over the four weeks. I also lost 0.6lb of muscles mass (-0.6, -0.2, 0, +0.2). I lost 2.8lb; however, I also lost 0.6lb of muscle mass. So, I changed my tactic immediately as I am eating too little for the activities level. In the 2nd week, I ate 1,300 calories per day, resulting in muscle loss of 0.2lb. So, I adjusted my calories intake to 1,400 – 1,500 per day, which stopped my muscle loss. I could not measure the muscle mass of the 4th week due to a technical issue with my phone app.

Analysis

If my primary goal were to lose weight, I would have been happy about the result. In reality, I was shocked by the loss of muscle mass from the first week. I have been working hard to gain muscle by doing strength exercises and yoga three times per week.

My immediate reaction was to investigate how much I must eat not to lose my muscle mass. With my level of activities, getting 1,200 -1,300 calories per day was too little. At least I know that 1,400 calories are my current floor for my calorie intake.

I felt a little lightheaded in the first week because I was not eating enough food. Since I was so hungry at night, and I had difficulties falling asleep at night. As a result, my sleep quality dropped. Increasing the calories intakes by 100 calories did not stop muscle loss or sleep quality problems. Rising to 1,400 calories stopped the issues. At least I know that 1,400 calories are my current floor for my calorie intake. The minimum calories intake changes with the muscle mass; therefore, regular monitoring is essential.

Technical Problems

During the 2nd day of the 4th week, my 4-year-old smartphone stopped uploading my digital weight. The only measurement I can take is weight. Therefore, I expect some challenges in controlling and monitoring. I ordered a new phone, and I should have a new smartphone by September 12th. Since I can no longer watch my muscle mass, I must maintain 1,400 – 1,500 Calories per day with the same exercise routine.

Expectation Gaps

I lost weight; however, I was not happy with the result because I lost muscle mass. I conclude what I want is not to lose weight. To discover the output I want, I decided to organize my thoughts.

What I want to Happen:

  • I want to lose FAT %. My aim is 25% for the moment. I want to fit into my clothing.
  • I want to increase my muscle mass to increase my metabolisms and muscle strengths. (Strong).
  • I want to lose weight.
  • I want to improve my cardio endurance.
  • I want to increase flexibility.
  • I want to decrease my stress.

GAP Analysis

With the five items I listed, I care a lot about retaining or increasing my muscle mass. There are multiple reasons why I want to maintain my muscles. Exercise promotes muscle gains, which helps to prevent diabetes and to improve metabolism (McPherron, Guo, Bond, Gavrilova, 2013). I enjoy many outdoor activities, and retaining my muscles is the key to sustain these activities I enjoy. Moderate exercise can prevent Aging. Naturally, we tend to lose muscle mass as we age. We can prevent muscle loss by doing adequate exercises. I wanted the first two items the most. Mathematically if I increase my muscle mass, I should lose my fat percentage. Thus, I think these goals can coexist easily.

The amount of calorie input is a key to recent unnecessary loss in muscles. In the results from this round, I noticed that eating less than 1,200 calories made my weight decrease. I also lost fat mass. After two weeks, I had to make immediate changes since I did not want to lose any more muscle. I increased to 1,400 – 1,500 calories which seems to prevent me from losing muscle mass; however, the rate of weight loss will slow.

Conclusions

I learned an important lesson. Do not rush my weight loss because I can lose muscle mass. Furthermore, I felt lightheaded, and I had no energy with only 1,200 calories. My muscle loss stopped at 1,400 calories. I seem to have enough energy and a clearer head. Therefore, my current minimum calories intake is 1,400 calories.

Due to technical issues, I do not have the tools to monitor my muscle mass until the 2nd week of September. Thus, I decided to maintain my current programs.

Daily Calories Intake: 1,400 Calories

Exercise: Strength Exercise (3 times) and a short HIIT, 2 Cardio, 1 Body Flow

My Exercise Programs

 MONTUEWEDTHURFRISATSUN
MorningRestBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPBODYFLOW
Evening HIIT HIIT HIIT 
My Exercise Program (Les Mills On-Demand)

When you know there are some expectation gaps, it will be good to organize your thoughts. For this round, I realize that I want to gain muscle and lose fat. Those measurements will be my primary monitoring inputs. I continue monitoring my total weight. Regular monitoring activities are crucial so that you can create timely corrective actions. The important thing is that I am improving little by little.

Reference

McPherron, A. C., Guo, T., Bond, N. D., & Gavrilova, O. (2013). Increasing muscle mass to improve metabolism. Adipocyte, 2(2), 92–98. https://doi.org/10.4161/adip.22500

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The Memo Technique to Remove the Worry

About a month ago, I watched an interesting YouTube video about a memo skill to solve your problems. The video introduced a book written by Yuji Akaba, who graduated from Stanford University and worked as a consultant with McKenzie for 14 years. The direct translation will be zero-second thinking. When I heard the title, I was skeptical. How can we find the solution to a problem in zero seconds because the only thing that can solve a problem that fast is a robot or computer? So, I was listening to the video for my entertainment.

He explains some people are never able to solve their problems. Those people will react to their situations in three patterns:

The first pattern is to ignore and endure the situation.

The second pattern is to sit with the problem with an uneasy feeling.

The third pattern is to think about the solution; however, not acting on it.

Despite there being three patterns, all people who use them sit with the problems. Thus, they all reach the same result – they all sit with the trouble forever.

Akaba explains this. There is an approach to solve our problems.

  1. You receive the information or fact
  2. You have felt toward the information or fact
  3. You contemplate on the information or fact
  4. You organize the thought
  5. You create a hypothesis or find the solutions to the problem
  6. You solve the problem

People with the first pattern stop at the first step. This type of person does not try to understand their feelings or ignores them when receiving the information. So, they stay with the issue. For example, they are told by the doctor that they have a weight problem. They may feel something about it, but they will ignore their feeling. They sit with the situation without doing anything about it. 

People with the second pattern cannot go beyond the second step. They have the information. They acknowledge their feeling about the information; however, they will sit with the sentiment. For example, they are told that they have a weight problem by their doctors. They may be angry at themselves or doctors that telling them they have a weight problem. They may be anxious because they may get health problems. These people worry about many issues; however, they also do not do anything about the problems.

People with the third pattern also cannot go beyond the second step. After they have the information, they acknowledge the feeling toward the information. They think about their problem, but they will stop there. They will think about it. For example, they found about their weight problem. They don’t like it. So, they will think about why they have the weight problem. They may research how to lose weight, but they stop there.

Organizing Our thoughts:

Smarter people can organize their thoughts. After finding out about a weight problem, they go beyond thinking about their weight problems. They identify the root causes of the issue. Then, they create hypotheses that they may be overeating or exercising too little. So, they make a goal to lose weight by creating a calorie deficit by exercising or eating less. They develop strategies to create a calorie deficit. They even think about any possible obstacles they may face. Some people even think about how to overcome those barriers.

Competent people put their strategies or plans into action. These people clear their controllable problems. These people can use the new information to innovate something new.

According to Akaba, we are stuck at the 3rd step because we don’t organize our thoughts. More competent people will go through the subsequent steps. People like Akaba, who a consultant from a vast consulting firm is. I imagine he could be consulted about many issues from his clients. He would need to deal with the problems promptly in the right way. Over the 14 years of working at McKenzie, he developed a memo technique.

If you want to acquire the skill to solve your problem, please exercise the memo technique he invented. If you want to acquire the skill to solve your problem, please exercise the memo technique he invented. There is no need to reinvent the method.

  • You will need the following:
    • A4 or letter size paper
    • Translucent Poly File Folders
    • White Label sticker for the clear file folders
    • A clipboard

Write down the following categories on the label stickers. (I used the below labeling, but you can create your labels. Just keep it to 5-7 categories.

  • Future
    • Communication
    • Teamwork
    • Information
    • Idea

Memo Steps

  1. You will write one idea per page. Put the title in the left-hand corner. Put the date in the right-hand corner. One page can contain one idea. Summarize the one idea in 4-6 sentences. You do write ten pages every day.
Memo Format: A4 or Letter Size (Landscape)

2. Every night, you file them in the clear file folders you made earlier. For example, if you think up a new idea during the day, the page is in the new idea folder.

3. Put them aside and review them in three months and then again in six months.

Important things to Remember

Only one idea per page

It is essential to use a physical paper and write it down. Don’t do this process on a PC or mobile device.

The paper orientation must be landscape so that your ideas can expand easier.

Use A4 or Letter size paper. You can expand your ideas better with a wider page.

Write and draw. Don’t limit yourself to using only words.

Use Large fonts.

Write down the idea as soon as you are able

Spend only 1 minute per page.

When you exercise this memo technique, you start worrying or thinking about the same things – money, Work, Family, Friends, etc. By categorizing your thought, you can push yourself beyond the 3rd step.  When you review the files in three months and six months, you notice that you worked on ideas or issues. You start to see the log of how you dealt with your problems. So, you will gain confidence.

Discussion

When I found out the technique, I thought. “what’s the hell….”.  What kind of person would do thing this every day?

I know I do struggle going beyond the 3rd step. What am I going to lose from this? I will probably lose nothing from doing this.  So, I followed his memo technique. I have been writing ten pages every day.

Initially, it was hard. Writing one idea in one minute was hard. I almost ditched this newly acquired habit once because it was hard. But I am still doing this.

I have not passed my first three months yet, so I cannot tell how I feel when reviewing my files. However, I noticed there are some changes in my thought process. My focus toward the idea and worry has shifted from being passive to being active.

I am more focused on my feelings, something I used to ignore or was oblivious about. Once I started paying attention to the little emotions or thoughts, I used to dismiss, the ideas repeatedly appeared on my page. It is interesting to find out how I continually worry about the same thing. So, I started to find the solution so I can get rid of them for good.

I am going to read the actual book which I just ordered from Amazon Japan. I will let you know after three months and six months.

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Completing Project Management Principles and Practices Specialization

I have led many financial transformation projects throughout my career. I gained knowledge from years of experience and certification courses provided by companies I worked with. I have been leading much more challenging projects at work last several years. So, I have been seriously considering becoming certified with a PMP certification. The objective of taking this course is to determine if I want to proceed with actual PMP certification.

This specialization consists of 4 Courses:

Initiating and Planning Projects: the key roles and responsibilities of the project manager and project team are to define the objectives for the project is the critical component of a project. In this course, you will also learn how to defines the goals of the projects.

Budgeting and Scheduling Projects: The project budget defines the constraints that can prevent a project team from completing the project. This course teaches you how to plan and monitor your schedule, costs, and any other constraint to ensure the success of your project.

Managing Project Risks and Changes: In this course, you will learn how to manage the risk of projects. You will learn the tools to monitor and manage the identified risks to minimize or mitigate risks for your team and other project stakeholders.

Project Management Project: Capstone course: In this course, you will create several key project planning deliverables using the knowledge you gained from the specialization courses.

Capstone:

  1. A narrative charter statements
  2. Work breakdown structure
  3. Sequence project activities
  4. A Project Schedule
  5. A Project Budget
  6. A responsibility assignment matrix
  7. Project risks and define responses for those risks

This course is offered by the University of California, Irvine. The courses consisted of videos, slides, reading materials, quizzes, and guided capstone for the last course. Additionally, there are optional reading materials:  I obtained the suggested reading materials: a guide to the project management body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) and Fast Forward MBA in Project Management. They are optional reading materials, but those books helped me a lot in completing these courses.  Since I decided to read all the suggested materials, completing each course took longer than recommended.

Paid courses in COURSERA have multiple choice quizzes or Peer graded assignments. The first three courses had quizzes, and the capstone had peer-graded assignments and a guided project. Make sure to read the requirements. I found that it is easier to find reviewers if you submit the assignment on Friday night. Many students seem to work on their course from Friday to Sunday.

You can start a course any day of the week for this course. The good thing was you could begin the capstone as soon as you complete all prerequisite courses. In the past, I had to wait a few months to take the capstone course because it started on a specific day.

Challenges

I did not have a lot of time to study. So, I spent at least 30 – 45 minutes working on this course every day. It can be hard to complete courses if you sorely relied on your motivation. Once I started studying for 10 minutes, I found it was easy to continue for another 20-30 minutes.

The Specialization course in 3 Sentences:

This specialization course teaches the most effective method to deliver the required product or function within the target cost and schedule. You will gain the fundamental knowledge to manage a project after taking these courses. You will produce a project plan that includes the product scope, a work breakdown structure, a project plan, a project schedule, budget, and risk management for the capstone course.

Impressions

Most videos are short; however, they are clear and concise. The videos and reading materials provide essential knowledge, and they are easy to understand. There are two optional reading materials for this course. If you want to take your learning to a higher level, these optional reading materials help. There is no limit on how much you can learn from the courses.

** Make sure to check the current PMBOK edition. This course recommends the 6th edition, but there is the 7th edition. 

How I Discovered It

I discovered this course from Coursera. I have a subscription from Coursera, and I am always taking courses from their website. I decided to take this course because I want to refine my project management skills. I also want to determine whether I want to obtain professional certification.

Who should take this course?

You do not have to own a title in project management to do these specialization courses. Anyone should take this course. We are often working on projects at work and personal life. You can apply the project management skills gained from these courses for your projects, such as wedding planning or home renovations.

I do not think this counts toward the required 35 PMP contract hours; however, the course gives you an idea of whether you want to proceed with the PMP certification.

How this Course Changed Me

I decided to proceed with PMP certifications, and then I will get a SCRUM master certification. Since most project leading involves change management or continuous improvement, I hardly use the SCRUM technique to manage a project. First, it would be better for me to learn the traditional method because the methods used for SCRUM are based on the traditional project management approach.

I found a great project plan that was submitted by one of the students. The project plan was clear and concise. Many stakeholders (especially sponsors) do not want to spend time figuring out the details of the project. I was fortunate to see his assignment, and I applied some of his techniques to improve my future project plans.

During this course, I realized the APA format changed again. Not to promoting my university but use Purdue OWL if you do not know how to style your academic paper.

About Coursera Courses

Finally, I want to mention few things about the courses offered in Coursera. Generally, there are optional reading materials recommended by instructors. You can adjust the depth of learning by reading optional reading material. If you want more intensity, don’t stop at just optional reading—research external academic journals for the assignments. I use JSTOR, Scientific Research, and Academia since I can read some free journals. There are also YouTube courses. Since I have a Skillsoft account, I use it for some business-related research. It takes me longer to complete courses, but I end up acquiring more knowledge than it offers. I have a subscription to Coursera because I can access more courses with the subscription. If you do not care for assignments or certifications, you can audit courses for free.

Interested in taking this specialization course? Check the link below.

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/project-management

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Does It Matter When I Exercise?

For the last few weeks, I changed my workout time to the early morning, 5:30 AM. On day one of the new exercise programs, I felt all workout routines feel much more challenging than when I do them at lunchtime or early evening.

Since I did not have a good sleep that day, I thought I was just tired. The following day, I did a cardio, BODYATTACK. I felt so pitiful that it was near impossible to bring my heart rate above 140 in the early morning than later in the day. I had 8.5 hours of sleep with a sleep score of 90 the day. So, it was nothing to do with the duration or quality of the sleep. I was curious about this phenomenon, so I continued the morning exercises every single day of the rest of the week and monitored my heart rates. I made changes to the intended exercise, but I wanted to check them all. So, I tried30 minutes BODYCOMBAT (Kickboxing), BODYATTACK (Bootcamp), BODYPUMP (Strength exercise), and GRIT (HIIT).

When I wake up, my heart rate is about 65. Usually, I move around the house for 15-20 minutes before exercising. The interesting part of this morning exercise was that I still felt as if I exercised at 90% of my max heart rate at the actual heart rate is just 135-140. GRIT was the worst one, and I had to give up at 17 minutes. Consequently, my calories output was lower by 100 calories for morning cardio exercises.

After one week of the observation, I made the following hypotheses.

The morning exercise feel harder because

  1. My starting heart rate is lower in the morning. I suspect that that is something to do with my heart rate being so low in the early morning. My resting heart rate is 63-65, and it can be a lot of stress to push it up to almost double.
  1. Since I am on intermittent fasting, my body does not have energy in the morning. I exercised at lunch during the fasting before. I have no problem reaching 90% of my max heart. Thus, the 2nd hypothesis is incorrect. 
  2. My muscles are not ready for a workout. I felt this when I was doing BODYPUMP (Strength Exercise) and GRIT (HIIT). I had difficulties keep my squats low.

I suspect that that is something to do with lower heart rates and stiffer muscles. Since my starting heart rate is so low, it can be a lot of stress to push it up to almost double in a short time. Interesting, right? I put my researcher’s hat on, and I investigated some.

If the primary objective is to have the best performance, the morning is not the right time to exercise.

As I suspected, the primary reason is the lower max heart rates in the morning. Thomas Reilly and his colleagues at the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moore University (as cited in the New York Times, Dec 9, 2009) found that our maximum heart rate is lower in the morning. However, the perception of how hard they were working was the same for morning and evening. Our body has a circadian rhythm that controls the hormones in our body to have a regular sleep-wake schedule. Our blood pressure, metabolism, energy level, and heart rates are lower in the early morning.

He and his colleagues also mentioned that our bodies are not as well prepared to exercise in the morning because our muscles tend to be less flexible. The athlete’s best performance is set in the late afternoon or the early evening (as cited in the New York Times, Dec 9, 2009).

Is morning exercise being all that bad? Despite my findings, there are some benefits to exercising in the morning.

Dietary Choices for the day

The people who work out in the morning tend to make healthier food choices for the day. After observing 2,680 young adults for 15-week cardio exercise in the morning, the young adults who work out in the morning tend to pursue healthier dietary preferences and habits (Joo, Willamson, Vazquez, Fernandez, and Bray, 2018). The study did not particularly seek to find the best time to exercise; however, the morning exercise motivated them to make healthier eating throughout the day. Since I started the training in the morning, I feel it has gotten easier to regulate my foods intake for the day.

More energy and higher productivity

I felt dreadful during my morning workout; however, I felt more energy when I did the morning exercises. My heart rate is higher after the training. My body is warmer. I even felt more alert and focused on my work. I usually do 1 hour of continuing education in the morning. I noticed my focus was higher after the morning exercise. The best part was I felt so good the whole day because I did a workout in the morning. So, I was more productive.

The choice is all about what you want to accomplish and your preference.

I prefer to work out in the morning because I must go to bed early at night. I have never liked to wake up early; however, I hated the morning traffic even more than waking early in the morning. For the last year, I have been working remotely. My work would like me to go to the office three times a week soon. So, I decided to adjust my schedule. Furthermore, I enjoyed the higher productivity due to the morning workout.

Discussion

The following week, I found out few things to minimize the loss. For example, a light intensity cardio before the strength exercise can help with the workout. BODYPUMP also has a warmup. After a short, low-intensity cardio session, my body is more prepared to do more strenuous strength training.

The Starting Exercise Program

 MONTUEWEDTHURFRISATSUN
MorningRestBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPBODYFLOW
Evening HIIT HIIT HIIT 

For one week, I did GRIT, BODYPUMP, BODYCOMBAT, BODYATTACK, and BODYSTEP all six mornings to satisfy my curiosity. After some investigation, I modified it a little bit. I kept a short GRIT (HIIT) exercise either on my lunch (when I was working remotely) or in the early evening (if I go into the office as I plan). The addition of HIIT exercises changed made a significant difference to my body weight. I started to lose weight again without losing my muscle mass.

I added a 5–10-minute low-intensity cardio before BODYPUMP so that my strength training has the intended effectiveness. This change is helping my strength workout.

Despite the lower-calorie output, I still prefer some cardio in the morning because of the productivity gain. So, I added another Cardio session on one of the weekends to accommodate the loss of 100 calories.

A New Modified Exercise Program

 MONTUEWEDTHURFRISATSUN
MorningRestBODYPUMP*CardioBODYPUMP*CardioBODYPUMP*BODYFLOW
Evening GRIT – Short GRIT – Short GRIT – Short Cardio

*A 5–10-minute light cardio before BODYPUMP

** GRIT – only short version (15-18 minutes)

What’s next

Initially, I thought of doing GRIT even on a Cardio day instead; however, I decided to add another cardio day on the weekend. I am finding out too much GRIT can cause mitochondria dysfunctions due to the stress caused by its strenuousness. You can reduce the damage by taking mitochondrial regulators and protector nutrients such as 5 grams of Leucine, 5 grams of creatine monohydrate, and 2.5 grams of betaine (Blechman, April 12, 2021). He is citing a lot of journals, so that I will check them out. For now, I am going to keep my new modified exercise program without taking these mitochondrial regulators and protector nutrients.

References

Blechman, S. (April 12, 2021). New Study Says High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) Can Cause Mitochondrial Dysfunction.https://advancedmolecularlabs.com/blogs/news/new-study-says-high-intensity-interval-training-hiit-can-cause-mitochondrial-dysfunction

Joo, J., Williamson, S. A., Vazquez, A. I., Fernandez, J. R., & Bray, M. S. (2019). The influence of 15-week exercise training on dietary patterns among young adults. International Journal of Obesity, 43(9), 1681–1690. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-018-0299-3

New York Times. (December 9, 2009). Ready to Exercise? Check Your Watch.https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/health/nutrition/10best.html

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Am I Sleeping Enough?

Over the last few weeks, my sleep patterns have grown sloppier. My sleep quality is still high; however, I have not slept an adequate number of hours. In the last two weeks, I had two days in which I slept less than 7 hours. One day, I could not sleep because I was too excited to sleep.

Sleep is an essential function of our body. Lack of sleep causes both short-term and long-term consequences. According to Harvard Medical school (n.d.), lack of sleep affects our judgment, mood, ability to learn or retain information, resulting in an accident. In the long term, inadequate sleep can cause weight problems and many other health risks such as high blood pressure, impaired control of blood glucose, and inflammation (para. 2 – 4). Researchers are discovering that REM sleep has a critical role in the body and cognitive functions. Insufficient REM sleep also increased the risk of death. The study found that for every 5% reduction of REM sleep, there is a corresponding 13% to 17% increase in death rates among middle-aged men (NHLBI, n.d.). Short REM sleeps also impacts our memory because it has a critical role in memory and homeostasis (Watson & Busaki, 2015, p. 68). So, sleep has a vital function in our lives in many ways.

If I maintain my sleep habit, I will continue to have weight problems and increased health risks. As I recognize the importance of having adequate sleep duration and quality, I decided to implement changes to improve my sleeping to have 8 hours of high-quality sleep.

Causes of Problem

The cause of my sleeping problem is that I go to bed at an inconsistent time. I am too excited to sleep most days because I read books, play the piano, learn, or write near bedtime. I don’t feel like sleeping. So, I end up going to bed later than I should. An irregular sleep schedule decreases the quality and duration of sleep. According to Kang and Chen (2009), irregular sleep can affect sleep duration and sleep quality. In the study, there were 160 students divided into three groups by frequency of irregular bedtime and had their sleep time, and quality of sleep monitored. The group with higher inconsistent bedtime schedule frequency had a shorter average sleep duration with lower sleep quality compared to the low-frequency group. Homeostasis and circadian rhythm affect the quality of our sleep. Circadian rhythm is like our biological clock. An irregular schedule confuses our bodies. So, even a day of altered sleep schedule results in a significant decrease in sleep quality. Two hours of alteration of sleep schedule decreases cognitive and psychological function even with the same sleep duration (p.2). My sleep schedule has been irregular, so my circadian rhythm is messed up. My sleep duration has been shorter than when I followed a strict sleep schedule, and I have days with poor sleep quality. So, I must set a regular sleep schedule to improve my sleep quality.

Solutions

From my research, I learned to set a body clock to tackle my sleep problems. The primary correction I need to make is to have a rigid sleeping schedule. As I identified earlier, I am more likely to engage in too much mental or physical activities too close to my bedtime. I may need to stop doing all such activities for 60 minutes before going to bed. I may need to shift my workout time or learn in the morning.

Mental stress can disrupt our sleeping schedule. Mental stress can be caused by high fatigue, disturbed mood, and reduced quality of life, which could be ameliorated with mindful activities such as meditation (Black, O’Reilly, Olmstead, Breen, & Irwin, 2015). I do a 2- minute breathing exercise; however, it may be time to extend to 5 minutes – eventually 20 minutes per session.

I also need to use glasses that block blue light while I am using a computer. I engage in activities that use a computer for over 10 hours, which is most likely one of the causes of mental fatigue. Fortunately, I already have a pair of glasses I purchased a few years ago, so I need to start using them again.

Finally, I am considering wearing a black eye mask. My husband sometimes goes to bed later than I would like to. I wake with the light. My eye mask should block out any light that makes me wake.

Preparation

I put to sleep an absolute priority than anything else. First, I need to tweak my schedule. I want to maintain a healthy lifestyle, so I prioritize exercising and eating highly. I blocked off these activities from my schedule completely. I will be home by 5:30, so I have only 90 minutes before 8 pm. If I schedule blogging and practicing piano, I will use up the remaining 90 minutes. I could utilize my morning for learning and reading or my continuing education curriculum, which allows me to stop reading or writing by 8:00. The new schedule will allow me to have a strict sleeping time. My weekend will be busy, but I would rather be healthy and productive than sick or tired.  

Focuses

  • Stop any high energetic activities by 8 pm.
  • Stop drinking or eating by 7:30 pm.
  • Sleep duration: 9:00 pm. to 5:30 am.

In addition, I am considering the following changes to improve my sleep quality. For example, I increase pre-bedtime meditation time to 5 minutes which I will save on my Kindle Fire. I also prepared a black eye mask for sleeping, which should help me with light problems. I also purchased a good-quality pillow. Better mattresses and pillows impact sleep quality significantly (Jacobson, Boolani, Dunklee, Shepardson & Achara, 20210). Finally, I will keep the pair of eyeglasses to block blue light in my office.

Monitoring

I use my Fitbit to monitor my sleep duration and quality because it logs when I went to bed and got out of bed. I can set the alarm. This time, I decided to introduce consequences for not following my new sleeping schedule to be painful for me. I will give three audible credits to my husband from my book allowance every three times I did not go to bed on time. I love reading books, so this will be a significant punishment for me. Every week, I will check my progress and make corrections so it works better for me.

Discussion

I am desperate to correct my sleep situation because it will impact my cognitive skills and my health. Unfortunately, it will take some time to fix. I should accept that it was my fault for not working on it fast enough, and I will never repeat the same mistake.

References

Black, D. S., O’Reilly, G. A., Olmstead, R., Breen, E. C., & Irwin, M. R. (2015). Mindfulness Meditation and Improvement in Sleep Quality and Daytime Impairment Among Older Adults With Sleep Disturbances: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Internal Medicine, 175(4), 494. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8081

Harvard Medical School (n.d.). Consequences of Insufficient Sleep.https://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/consequences

Jacobson, B. H., Boolani, A., Dunklee, G., Shepardson, A., & Acharya, H. (2010). Effect of prescribed sleep surfaces on back pain and sleep quality in patients diagnosed with low back and shoulder pain. Applied Ergonomics, 42(1), 91–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2010.05.004

Kang, J.-H., & Chen, S.-C. (2009). Effects of an irregular bedtime schedule on sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, and fatigue among university students in Taiwan. BMC Public Health, 9, 248. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-248

Study links poor dream-stage REM sleep to a higher risk of death | NHLBI, NIH. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13, 2021, from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2020/study-links-poor-dream-stage-rem-sleep-higher-risk-death

Watson, B. O., &Buzsáki, G. (2015). Sleep, Memory & Brain Rhythms. Daedalus, 144(1), 67–82.

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My First Project in Literary Analysis: The Masque of the Red Death

It was not so long ago when I started reading fiction books. I have hardly read any fictions books for the last 15 years because I thought I would learn more from non-fiction books. The one book changed my mind 180 degrees. Last Christmas, I read “How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines” by Thomas Foster. Foster (2014) explained that literary analysis is like pattern recognition. It sounded interesting. So, I tried literary analysis on my own. 

For my first literary analysis project, I selected a chilling story from Edgar Allan Poe, the masque of the red death. I liked his writing style because it reminds me of Ryunosuke Akutagawa, a Japanese author known for “Rashomon.” Summer in Tennessee is hot. So, a chilling story would be nice to ease this heat. It is a six-page short story, yet it contains Poe’s tactical usages of Symbolism and Metaphors.

The Plot Summary

The fatal outbreak, the “Red Death,” ravaged the country. The plague was so deadly that the population of the country dropped nearly by half. The horrible pandemic caused a patient sharp pain, sudden dizziness, and profuse bleeding from pores. The scarlet stains appear on the patient’s body – especially on the face, which scared away the sympathetic fellow men.

Due to the outbreak, Prince Prospero secluded himself from the pandemic in the abbey with a thousand knights and their spouses to continue to live a lavish lifestyle until the outbreak was over. An iron gate, welded from weapons the courtiers brought, should protect prince Prospero and his courtier from the red death. There were enough supplies. All they needed to do is to pass the time with lavish parties until the outbreak was over.

At the 5th or 6th month of the seclusion, the prince and his friends held a masked ball held in seven imperial suites. The apartments were so irregularly arranged that people could see only one apartment at a time. There were sharp turns every twenty or thirty yards, and each turn created a novel effect. Each room was coordinated with color and located in the following order: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and finally, black. All rooms were coordinated with the decoration of the chamber, except for the last black one. The room had black velvet tapestries and black carpet; however, the windows’ color failed to match the decorations. The windows were scarlet that resembled a deep blood color. No one except a few entered the room during the party.

There was a giant clock made from ebony in the black chamber, which pendulum swung with a dull, heavy, and monotonous clang. The clock strikes a chime each hour, which interrupts people from whatever joy they were experiencing. Then, people go back partying after the chime is over.

Around midnight, guests started noticing a masked individual wearing a dark, blood-splattered robe, resembling a corpse from the red death. The insulted prince demanded the identity of this stranger. The guests were too scared to stop this intruder. This nameless intruder made his way from the blue room, the purple, the green, the orange, the white, and the violet room without interruption. Finally, the prince drew his dagger and charged toward this stranger. As the stranger faced the prince, the prince fell dead with a sharp cry. The people surged into a 7th chamber and pulled the mask and robe from the stranger. There was nothing underneath. The guests at the party fell sick. The story ended with the sentence, “Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

Analysis

Poe’s novels are all poetic. All sections of the novel are equally essential to the novel, and they are entangled in a complex manner to create such a beautiful novel. There would be many symbolic language and metaphors. I started highlighting any suspected symbols and metaphors and started to analyze them.

Instinctively, I thought the seven imperial suites and the structure of the halls represent something; however, I did not know what they meant. The key was the order of the color of the rooms – blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black. The black room seemed a key because it was different from other rooms. This was the room people avoided – were people afraid to step into the room? When I was talking to my husband, he mentioned that blue is often associated with birth. So, we hypothesized that rooms representing the stage of life: blue as the birth, purple as a youth, green as adolescence, orange as adulthood, white as old, violet as illness, then black as death.

If colored rooms were representing stages of life, the structure of the house would make sense. The hallways to each room have sharp turns every 20 or 30 feet between the rooms. The views were so limited that people could see one room at a time. Each turn, people could feel a novel effect. The structures of the hallways represent the way through each life stage.

The gigantic ebony clock that in the black room represents the time of people’s life. The clock is ticking equally to everyone until you would die. The clock kept reminding all people in the spaces that their time would eventually come.

The story reached a climax when the masked stranger made his appearance in the easternmost room, the blue room – representing birth. It wore the costume of the red death. Since people feared his presence, it moved toward the black rooms uninterrupted until prince Prospero charged at it with a dagger.

Initially, I thought Prince Prospero represented Poe himself. Although, I could not understand why Poe selected this name for the prince in this story. This is the name of a character from The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Prospero in The Tempest won. Instead of winning, Prince Prospero in Poe’s novel charged into the masked stranger and died. The tempest is a carefully developed drama portraying the ultimate triumph of ethical control over passion, and Prospero represents with “Noble Reason” (Phillips, 1964, P147). Prospero was an analogy in Poe’s novel representing reasoning or control. The masked individual represents fatal illness. Now, I think the prince Prospero represents Poe’s ability to control, which was destroyed by the plague, his wife’s consumption. Later, Poe wrote to his friend, George W. Eveleth, explaining his mental state.

Each time I felt all the agonies of her death — and at each accession of the disorder I loved her more dearly & clung to her life with more desperate pertinacity. But I am constitutionally sensitive — nervous in a very unusual degree. I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity. During these fits of absolute unconsciousness I drank, God only knows how often or how much. As a matter of course, my enemies referred the insanity to the drink rather than the drink to the insanity. I had indeed, nearly abandoned all hope of a permanent cure when I found one in the death of my wife.

Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore—Works—Letters—E. A. Poe to G. W. Eveleth (January 4, 1848). (n.d.).

Pulmonary tuberculosis claimed many lives in the United States. In the 1800s, as many as one in seven Americans (Fay, April 1, 2020, para 7-8). Poe himself lost many loved one from the illness. Virginia, his beloved wife, was not excluded. In January 1942, Poe’s wife, Virginia, was diagnosed with Pulmonary tuberculosis. Despite the protection (iron gate) he put against the illness. Pulmonary tuberculosis slowly kills people. How painful it must have been for Poe to watch his wife waste away from such an illness. As his wife was getting sicker, he was more drawn to liquor. Despite the wealthy household or “iron gate,” Poe explained nothing could protect your loved one from illness or death. To me, this story represents the inescapable nature of death and the futility of trying to keep it at bay. I sensed Poe’s Agony and sorrow which was expressed so beautifully with this short novel that it took my breath away.

Lessons Learned

This was the first time I did Literary Analysis. It took me longer than planned because I had to research the author to understand the story better. I still feel that I needed to improve on the techniques in analyzing metaphors. I will be planning to read on Literary analysis in the future. I felt fifteen years of not reading any fiction hurting me somehow as I could not remember the novels or poems I should be compared with. I am surprised at finding pleasure in the process of literary analysis. Not only I learned more about Poe, but I also stepped into a new field of gaining skills in analyzing literature. I will be more likely to do more literary analysis in the future.

References

Edgar Allan Poe. (1842). The Masque of the Red Death. [Kindle Edition]. A public Domain Book.

Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore—Works—Letters—E. A. Poe to G. W. Eveleth (January 4, 1848). (n.d.). Retrieved July 9, 2021, from https://www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p4801040.htm

Fay, Glenn J. (Apr 1, 2020). The White Plague: Tuberculosis in Early America.https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-white-plague-tuberculosis-in-early-america-954f47e9675f

Foster, T., (2014). How to Read Literature Like a Professor. [Kindle Edition]. Harper Perennial.

Phillips, J. E. (1964). The Tempest and the Renaissance Idea of Man. Shakespeare Quarterly, 15(2), 147–159. https://doi.org/10.2307/2867886