Category: Natsuko’s Blog

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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

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Are We Curious Enough?

I attended a funeral. Since we arrived a few hours earlier, only a few were preparing for the service about to be held. Among those people, an organist was preparing the pipe organ for the service. I have never seen a pipe organ before, so I was watching him play the pipe organ. My husband asked the organist if he could show the mechanism of the pipe organ. He showed me how the pipe organ worked, and he played us some music pieces from Bach and Scarlatti. After some talks, he asked me whether I wanted to play the harpsichord. So, I got to play the harpsichord. I played Bach’s Partita. The feel of the harpsichord was different from that of a piano. At the midway point, depressing a key, I feel a little pressure against my finger. I had to smear my finger against keys to make a pretty sound. Soon I realized, I had to curl my fingers more to play on the harpsichord. Suddenly, I understood why my piano teacher made me curl my fingers to play Bach or Scarlatti. This experience will undoubtedly impact my future piano practice.

I was excited about this experience; at the same time, it made me wonder how many potentially great experiences I have missed. It was my husband who asked the organist to show us the pipe organ. Despite my curiosity toward the instrument, I hesitated. Am I not curious enough to ask anymore?

Generally, many kids are curious. My nephew and nieces ask me many questions or try to copy what I do. My nephew and niece got to play with the harpsichord without any hesitation because they asked us whether they could also play. I remember being curious about everything when I was young. I used to climb a tree to see the view from the tree. I worked so hard to figure out how to catch crayfish or insects only with the available tools. One day, my friends and I followed around city workers who were maintenance sewer utility holes. The city workers explained to us why they need to perform maintenance. I don’t remember details, but I was excited about our little job shadowing. I was curious, too. As I get old, I become more hesitant to ask people about anything resulting in missing meaningful experiences.

I think we hesitate to ask other people despite being curious because sometimes we get into trouble for it. Or we feel shy to ask such silly questions. I still remember how scared my parents got when I dipped my finger into a hot spring near some volcanic mountains. I remember being screamed at by a pilot when I was trying to hear what it was mumbling. The pilot called so hard directly to my ear that I felt as if my eardrum broken. I also got trouble for asking too many questions to my elementary school teacher. In our science class, I asked my teacher was showing the frog eggs on the tree above the water. So, I asked her how the frog knows where to lay eggs. My questions caused other students to guess the answer, so I interrupted the class. Then, we learned some unspoken rules as we grew, such as not asking too personal questions. Over time, we become shy to ask questions because we can cause trouble to others. I was afraid to be perceived as a dimwit. Some actions driven by curiosity led to injury or painful experiences. Our interest does not always necessarily result in a good experience or result. But I think I may be losing great opportunities because I am too hesitant to ask.

I read few mythologies presenting negative connotations toward being curious such as Pandora’s Box. We even have a proverb, “Curiosity killed the cat.” However, modern psychology views curiosity as a drive that results in positive results like success or learning.

Despite the interests showed by some historical psychologists such as James, Pavlov, and Skinner, scientists have not been investigating the mystery until recently. We refer to curiosity as a broader category of information-seeking. According to the Oxford university definition, curiosity is a strong desire to know about something (Oxford Dictionary, n.d.). Non-human animals also show curiosity. My cat always investigates new items we bring into the house. Psychologists such as Daniel Berlyne explained (as cited in Kidd & Hayden, 2015) the dimension of curiosity as perceptual versus epistemic and specific versus divertive. Perceptual curiosity is the driving force seeking out novel stimuli, while epistemic curiosity is the driving force for seeking knowledge. Some modern psychologists have created additional dimensions based on why people or non-human animals seek knowledge (p. 3). I think the intensity of the curiosity is more significant when there is a greater information gap.

As I gained insight by playing the harpsichord, there is a benefit for being curious, especially with the capacity to use the information we gain by investigating. George Loewenstein (as cited in Kidd & Hayden, 2015) defined curiosity as a cognitive induced deprivation from our perception in knowledge gap (p. 4). Some info-seeking activity requires some period of learning; therefore, we do not see the benefits immediately. So, the intensity of curiosity matters for learning. As we acquire the knowledge, we gain satisfaction resulting from declining our curiosity about a particular subject. At a glance, It seems the amount of knowledge and intensity have an inverse relationship. I started to realize it is not the case. The more I read or learn, discover more things I want to know. I even feel that I am more curious than when I was 20.

Aside from learning, research suggests that curiosity could make us more successful and even prolong our life. Ian Robertson, professor of psychology, explained (as cited in Freyne, Jul 24, 2013) that intellectually curious people achieve more in life and tend to live longer. They do not know why intellectually curious people live longer, but they hypothesized that repeated infusion of noradrenaline provides protective effects to the brain structure. It also fosters plasticity in the brain (Para. 11-12). Since I understand the function of noradrenalin as a hormone that makes us excited (stressful), maybe it helps us maintain healthy cognitive functions. I think it is the internal drives that keep curious people live longer. When people are intellectually curious, they develop the purpose to live.

I always thought I was curious because I read and researched various topics; however, you cannot learn everything from just reading. Interacting with other people gain insight. Physical experience can lead to different levels of learning. This incident with the pipe organ and the harpsichord made me rethink my curiosity. As I was talking to the organist, I sensed he enjoyed introducing us to the pipe organ. I felt his joy in playing the music pieces for us. I gained a meaningful experience, which will enhance my learning of baroque music. Sometimes, I am too shy to talk to people despite my curiosity to miss out on great learning opportunities. Occasionally, we may need a little courage to ask a silly question.

References

Freyne, Patric. (July 24, 2013). Curiouser and curiouser: the key to health and happiness?https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/curiouser-and-curiouser-the-key-to-health-and-happiness-1.1472714

Kidd, C., & Hayden, B. Y. (2015). The psychology and neuroscience of curiosity. Neuron, 88(3), 449–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.010

Oxford Dictionary. (n.d.). Curiosity.https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/curiosity?q=curiosity

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How to Combat with Negative Effects of Remote Work

Back in February 2020, we were hearing about the outbreak happening in China. Since no one, even U.S. officials, seems to worry about the outbreak, I had never thought that we would be closing the whole town. In June, our president announced that all of the U.S. must work from home. By June, there were hardly any commuters near our office, so that I saw deer sleeping in our office courtyard. I was happy to convert to a remote environment because I never liked losing my time commuting. I still went to my office a few times per week because not all jobs can be completed remotely.

I can maintain a work and personal life balance better now; however, it was not always like this. I felt exhausted more from working from the office. When I completed the project at the beginning of October, I started feeling ill. I did not realize what was happening to my body. I began to have stomach and sleeping problems soon after I completed the project. I started having so many issues that I spent most of my thanksgiving day’s holiday in bed. After the last thanksgiving days, I was wondering why I was so exhausted.

I realized that I was not the only one feeling some remote fatigue. Stratton (as cited in Younghans, September 02, 2020) explained that many remote workers have experienced fatigue and burned out because many of us rely solely on technology to stay in touch with others (para. 3). Some of our customers, vendor, or auditors mentioned that they also observed their remote employees burning out.  Some found remote work too challenging. Some auditors reported working harder in the remote environment because they lost traveling time to their clients. In virtual environments, auditors had no breaks between different projects. Some felt stressed from needing to relearn how to work virtually. Many reported that it was challenging to train subordinates.

Any change is stressful, but we must adapt to changes. Besides, I also saw significant benefits in working remotely. So, I thought the best way to deal with this problem was to do a root-cause analysis to identify the potential causes of my exhaustion. Then, I would come up with corrective action and preventative action.

Issues

(1)  As a remote worker, I felt my working environment invaded my personal life because I did not draw a clear line between work and personal life. Your home office (personal space) is also an office space when you are working remotely. –  caused by mobile phone or emails after working hours. – no change of physical environment.

(2)  I felt like people expected me to work more hours since I was not at the office. I sometimes worked on the weekends because I was leading a big project. – stress created by me. Does my manager expect me to work long hours?

(3)  Some people demand phone calls or video conferences on short notice, which can interrupt my work. – caused by mobile phone or emails

(4)  It can be challenging to manage people virtually. People miss their emails, task requirements, or phone calls. Some tasks are interdependent to my tasks or part of the project activities, which affected my work. – ineffective virtual communication

(5)  Since the pandemic started, I had an unhealthy lifestyle. – lack of exercise, sleep, and too much stress.

Since I have the list of the problems, I should be able to develop the solutions. Some are preventative, and some are permanent solutions.

Solutions

  • I put away all my office equipment after working. I also turned off my mobile and P.C. after working hours.
  • I became selective about taking on projects. Now I accept projects which only I can do. I handle projects which increase benefit to the company. I delegated some work that others could perform.
  • I had requested my boss give feedback on my performance and clarify the job assignments and expectations, which helped because my boss thought I was working too much. No one expected me to work harder. I was stressing out myself from self-created pressure.  
  • To avoid sudden interruption of work, I blocked out 3 hours of my morning completely. I turn off my Email and Mobile phone. During these three hours, I complete essential tasks. Since all critical tasks are completed, I did not get stressed out even when I get a sudden phone call or video conference during the rest of the day.
  • I made a commitment to exercise, sleep, and eat well. I take a frequent break.
  • The 4th problem was a little tricky because it involves other people who were working remotely. Initially, I was dealing with them by communicating or following up with them more than others. When my boss decided to implement a 15-minute morning meeting, it seemed to work out because I use the meeting to remind others of the tasks a few days before the due date.

I was busy moping about the new environment; however, these corrective actions permanently resolved the problem. In addition, changing my lifestyle prevents the recurrence of undesirable events such as becoming ill.

I prefer remote work because I have started to see significant benefits from a remote work environment. Although, it took me several months to figure out how to work remotely without getting remote work fatigue. I found myself to be more productive when I am working from a home office. I got a much better review than in previous years because I could complete multiple additional projects. Additionally, I started to use the extra time for exercising, family time, and skill improvements.

I suspect more companies will offer remote work after this pandemic. Just like I did, I noticed more people started seeing more benefits in remote work environments. According to PwC (January 12, 2021), the shift in positive attitude toward remote work increased to 83% from 73% in June 2020. 55% of employees prefer to work remotely at least three days per week. 87% of executives expect to make changes to their real estate strategy, and there will be more satellite offices. Some companies are started to invest in remote work (para. 4-9). According to Zurich North America Insurance poll conducted in May 2021 (as cited in Murray, June 2021), 53% of CEO views 2-3 days of remote work per week the best (p. 41). I was not surprised at these findings. There are some benefits for both employers and employees in remote environments. Eliminating commuting time is one of the benefits people will point out. Employers can change their real estate strategy by having employees working from home. Employers can save salary by hiring people from areas where the cost of living is much cheaper.

The main benefit I earned from this experience was that I am confident in working remotely. As a result, I am seriously considering finding permanent remote work.

References

Murray, Alan. (Jun, 2021). The CEO Outlook: Upbeat in the C-Suite. Fortune. 183(3), 4.

PWC. (January 12, 2021). Business needs a tighter strategy for remote work.https://www.pwc.com/us/remotework?WT.mc_id=CT10-PL102-DM2-TR1-LS3-ND30-PR4-CN_ViewpointHighlights-

Younghans, Johanna. (September 02, 2020). 6 Ways to Relieve Your Work from Home Fatigue.https://healthblog.uofmhealth.org/health-management/6-ways-to-relieve-your-work-from-home-fatigue

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Losing Weight Challenge #4 Introducing LES MILLS on Demand

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. Since the last challenge, I began working on mindful eating. I wanted to be more contemplative with who I am, and I wanted to trust my eating. I also decided to work on increasing my muscle mass while reducing my body fat. So, I started to look for exercise programs from home that include muscle training and cardio exercise. After some research, I decided to try LES MILLS on Demand.

I must understand how much exercise I should be doing. When I tried the first 45 minutes BODYATTACK, I barely made it to the 30-minute mark. At this point, I was not sure about my physical capability. This round, I wanted to try few different types of LES MILLS exercise classes. Then, I would customize workout programs in the future.

Procedures:

(1) Experiment with a 45-minute class and stop when I could not do any exercise. After the first week, I changed to a 30-minute class.

(2) Try a class per day until I needed a rest day.

(3) Change the time of exercise to find the best time for exercising.

I used this trial period to evaluate my physical strength, flexibility, and endurance. My main goal is to figure out my workout program. I started with BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, and BODYFLOW since I did not have any equipment yet.

I monitored my total body weight and muscle mass to see the progress.

I will briefly introduce BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, and BODYFLOW.

BODYATTACK reminds me of a Bootcamp class I used to take. It consists of athletic movements such as running, squats, lunges, agility, push-up, core exercise, and plyometrics. It is a high-energy exercise. My Fitbit calculated I spent about 305-310 calories for 30 minutes of this exercise. The class is intense, but you can always pick a more accessible option. For example, I can choose to do squads instead of burpees.

BODYCOMBAT is like kickboxing. It used to be called BODYATTCK. When I did my first instructor certification course with LES MILLS 15 years ago, I lost 8 pounds just practicing videos every day. Muay Thai exercises were always the hardest one for me, so I was happy to do some Muay Thai exercises. Their high knee exercises give me good muscle pain. My Fitbit calculated I spent about 325-330 calories for a 30 minute-class.

BODYFLOW contains Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, and meditation. I usually do their 20-25 minutes body flow class before work. I am not very flexible, so I try to imitate the instructors’ poses as much as I can. BODYFLOW is not a high-energy class; however, my body feels good from stretching.

I told my husband about getting Les Mills on-demand subscription. He knew that I had instructor certifications from LES MILLS 15 years ago. So, we agreed that we would purchase equipment for BODYPUMP and BODYSTEP. Since we received the equipment kit in the 4th week, I only tried BODYPUMP twice last week.

Finding

To find out how many days I can exercise per week, I did a workout every day. As a result, I started to have pain in the arch of the foot. So, I had to take two days of rest and light exercise the following days. After three days of rest and a light workout, the pain was gone. So, I need to be more mindful of how much I exercise. I found out I could do six days of workout; however, one day must be BODYFLOW. I added a 17 minutes BODYFLOW class in the morning in addition to a 30-minute exercise, which seems to work for me. I felt much better when I stretch in the morning.

A 30-minute of exercise per day is adequate for me for now. If I do more than a 30-minute of training, I get tired. I struggled with how to fit the exercise routine into my schedule. The first week, I was so tired from the exercise that I slept in on both weekends. Then, I was not as productive on weekends either. Furthermore, I forgot to practice the piano for two days.

Benefits 

It is convenient since I can exercise in my house. It is not my first time trying LES MILLS’s program. I used to go to their BODYATTACK, RPM, and BODYSTEP classes at a gym a long time ago. I loved their program, but the program was available only at GoodLife Fitness, where I lived. Since I was always traveling, it was challenging to attend some classes, such as BODYPUMP classes. I loved their BODYATTACK and RPA programs so much that I earned instruction certificates. I did not have time to teach the classes, but I could get instructor videos for the programs. When I realized that I can now do this program on demand, I was excited. It came with a 30-day trial period, but I have already known that I would enjoy their program. Now I can do their exercise program any time I want to.

Accessing a variety of exercises prevents us from becoming obese. Among nearly 1.7 million US adults, people regardless of their sexes who engaged both 150 minutes or more per week of aerobic physical activity and twice or more per week of muscle-strengthening exercise with different classes had the lowest incidence of obesity (Bennie et al., 2020, p. 332). When people engage in various activities, they tend to accumulate more minutes of total exercise time. It is recommended that you will need between 150 and 250 minutes per week of exercise to prevent weight gain, and you will need between 225 and 420 minutes per week of exercise to lose weight. Bennie et al. explain that Americans who exercise with two or more activities tend to do more than 150 minutes of exercise (p. 341). I had more than 400 minutes of training from all four weeks.

The class choreography is easy to understand. Instructors perform all routines as mirror images to the students so that attendants can follow the instruction easier. For example, an instructor performs left side steps and tells students to do a right sidestep.

Every class seems to contain squats. In addition to regular exercise, squats promote our body to lose body fat and gain lean body mass. For example, after observing 94 athletic adolescent boys, they found the group who did 100 reps per day of squats 45 sessions over eight weeks increased lean body mass by 2.7%and decreased body fat by 4.2% (Takai et al., 2013, p. 61).

Impact of my Total & Muscle Weight

I started caring more about my muscle weight than my total weight. I continue with my mindful eating. I gained 0.6 lb. of the total weight and 0.2 lb. of muscle mass during the first week because I ate more. I think I was hungrier because my body was going through sudden trauma from all the training. During the second week, I was more careful with my eating. I lost 1.4 lbs. I also lost 0.2lbs of muscle. During the third week, I made sure I ate enough protein and carbohydrates, and I lost 0.2lbs of the total weight while gaining 0.2 lbs. of muscle mass. In the 4th week, I regained 0.2 lbs., but I also gained 0.2 lbs. of muscle mass. I lost 1.0 lb. of total weight, but I gained 0.4 lbs. of muscles.

Losing fat without losing protein is more challenging than I initially thought. I may need to investigate how to eat appropriately to retrain my muscles.

The Next Action

From my 1-month experience, my approximate time of exercise was 5-6 x of 30- minutes of class. I must rest my body at least once a week. I will start with six days of exercise, but I may reduce it to 5 days.

Since I want to gain more muscle, I am considering more BODYPUMP classes per week. I will rotate BODYATTACK, BODYCOMBAT, BODYSTEP, and ZUMBA on cardio days. In addition, I may continue 20 minutes of BODYFLOW before work because little stretches in the morning made me feel good.

I am considering implementing the following schedule for the next challenge.

 MONTUEWEDTHRFRISATSUN
ClassRestBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPAny cardioBODYPUMPBODYFLOW
Workout Schedule #5

References

Bennie, J. A., Cocker, K. D., Pavey, T., Stamatakis, E., Biddle, S. J. H., & Ding, D. (2020). Muscle Strengthening, Aerobic Exercise, and Obesity: A Pooled Analysis of 1.7 Million US Adults. Obesity, 28(2), 371–378. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22673

Takai, Y., Fukunaga, Y., Fujita, E., Mori, H., Yoshimoto, T., Yamamoto, M., &Kanehisa, H. (2013). Effects of Body Mass-Based Squat Training in Adolescent Boys. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 12(1), 60–65.

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How I passed CMA Part I & Part II Exams after only 18 Weeks of Studying

To learn something, we need curiosity and dedication.  If you want to pass a professional exam the most efficiently, you can apply some studying techniques to pass them effectively. Today, I will write about how I passed CMA Part I & Part II exams in a mere 18 weeks.

In 2017, I learned about certification in Strategy and Competitive Analysis (CSCA). After investigation, I realized I need to have a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) designation before obtaining a CSCA. So, I decided to get a CMA certification. CMA certification exams have two parts. The passing rate for Part I and Part II were 36.25% and 50.5% for 2015-2019. According to the Institute of Management Accountants, it generally takes 12-18 months to complete both parts and requires 150-170 hours of study for each part. I passed both parts in only 18 weeks. I passed both parts on the first try. I also passed the CSCA exam in 8 weeks.

I decided to complete these two exams so that I could write the next CISA exam. So, I developed a studying plan to pass these two parts exams most effectively by applying the forgetting curve and Leitner System theory. In the past, I used these studying techniques for writing CMA and CSCA exams, but they can be used for any exam. This method works for most academic studies.

Finding out what you are familiar and What You are not Familiar

Discovering which content you are familiar with is essential for effective studying because you want to spend more time on the content not understood well. Most examinees writing accounting designation exams are familiar with some content either from school or actual work. After obtaining the CMA handbook, I looked at the content specification overview for Part I and Part II because I could decide which order to complete the exams. I decided to take Part I first because I was more familiar with the content of Part I. I also want to see how long it may take to complete studying. Accumulating the notes or questions from the back of each chapter during your school term is a good method, too. Those notes help in the reviews before your exams.

Find Studying Material

If you can, get a studying material with a lot of practice questions. It will be better if it contains Practice Exam questions. I used Gleim Exam Prep. The studying material I used was expensive, but I just viewed it as a self-investment. I liked the studying material contains an enormous amount of practice questions in these materials. It also had the practice exam questions are imitating the actual exam environment; therefore, it allows me to be familiar with the test.

The Calculator Policy

You will find the Calculator Policy in the Handbook; you must ensure your calculator is eligible for the exam. Only specific calculators are allowed. If your calculator is not eligible, you will need to borrow a calculator, which you may not as familiar with. Exam centers typically do have calculators, but every calculator is slightly different. I purchased a calculator from Texas Instruments because my Sharp calculator was not allowed for the exam. I used this calculator for practicing questions. I also brought another identical calculator as a spare in case the first calculator broke. For your school, you may want to ask your professor which calculators are allowed for the exam. Some professors have a calculator policy. When I was pursuing my undergraduate degree, I had one professor who would reset a student’s calculator before a physics exam.

You want to spend more time reviewing previous chapters rather than learning new content because we tend to forget most of the things we learn if we do not review them. Graph 1 depicts the curve of Forgetting, which I obtained from the Waterloo University website. The black line describes how much of the information we just learned is retained. By the second day, we retain approximately 30% of what we learned the previous day. By the 30th day, you retain only 2-3% of what was initially learned. So, we must feed the information again. The yellow curve describes how much of the information is retained if we review at given intervals. You do not have to study the same things every day. For 45-50 minutes of lecture material, you can retain the most information you learned if you review the material for 10 minutes on the 2nd day, 5 minutes a week later, and 2-3 minutes after a month. If you skip this reviewing process, you will need to spend 45-50 minutes to relearn it after a month. I spend about 70% of my studying time reviewing or practicing questions.

The reviewing period can vary with the person. I found it is more effective to review the materials when you start to forget. You may feel discomfort with the reviewing process, but the discomfort helps you store the information in long-term memory.

Graph 1. The Curve for Forgetting. Adapted from “Curve of Forgetting” by Waterloo University Website. (n.d.). https://uwaterloo.ca/campus-wellness/curve-forgetting

Practice More on Low Proficiency Questions

I used a modified version of the Leitner system to practice the questions. First, I do all questions from one unit (Chapter). Each unit (chapter) contains multiple sections. If I correctly answer all questions for an area, I mark the section as 2, and anything else remains as 1. You will have five in total. You will do this until everything reaches 5. Figure 1 shows how the system works. In the extreme version, you will move content to box1 if you incorrectly answer a question from any box. I moved down one number.

Figure 1. The Leitner System. Adapted the Leitner System by zigezi (as cited in Whelan, May 7, 2019). https://jessewhelan.medium.com/using-the-leitner-system-to-improve-your-study-d5edafae7f0

Review the questions from each box on a different day. (I change the days to work best for me).

Box 1 – Every day

Box 2 – Every other day

Box 3 – Every three days

Box 4 – Every week

Box 5 – Every two weeks

Leitner developed this system for learning flashcards. You practiced the questions with low proficiency levels by practicing them more with this system.

If you want to pass the exams in a short amount of time as I did, you may want to spend a few hours studying every day. I studied 2-3 hours on weekdays and 5-8 hours on weekends. I spend more time on content and questions, which I was not good at. Since I studied every day, I gained confidence by the time I was writing the exam. I also spent enough time reviewing all materials, which allow me to retain the information for the long term.

A Week Before Exam

I relaxed my studying, and I made sure I slept 8 hours every day. I was careful with what I ate to avoid having stomach pain during the exams. So, I was well-rested.

The most important way to pass the exams is to prepare yourself well for the exams, and there is no shortcut for passing an exam. You can, however, make your studying method is as effective as possible by using various methods. Both the forgetting curve and Leitner system are widely accepted learning theories. I used those learning theories to pass my CMA and CSCA, and I passed all exams on the first try in a short period. You can, of course, these studying methods can be used for other types of exams or studying. Next time, I will write about tricks for multiple-choice kinds of exams.

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The Day of Doing Nothing Can Benefit Us

One day, I decided to do nothing because I felt my attrition rate increase, especially in tasks requiring creativity. It is because I have been extremely busy with year-end audits, taxes, and other year activities. Although, it was not as bad as the prior year since my husband took over many household chores. I also have been working on improving my lifestyle to be healthier by getting adequate sleep, meditation, proper diet, and exercise. Yet, I noticed that I tend to be less focused. It was high time to relax and refresh my brain.

I wanted to take a week off from work; however, it was impossible to take a whole week off. So, I took two days off—a day for only reading, playing the piano, writing, and thinking. I did the exercise for one of the two days. I made a strict rule not to think about work at all during these two days. I intentionally created two days without a to-do list or appointments, which was surprisingly challenging.

In total, I had two days of vacation. I decided to do whatever I wanted to do that day. One rule I strictly enforced was not to think about my work at all. On the first day, I mostly spend my time reading and playing the piano on these days. I did approximately 90 minutes of exercise during the day. I was physically tired, so I slept so well. I scored 91 on my sleep quality score according to my Fitbit. On the second day, I was doing the same activities as the first day, but I did not exercise. I had too much energy to sleep that night. I am usually busy on my vacation days doing something, and I never noticed this problem. I need to test it again. It will be better for me physically active on my vacation days. Although, I thought two days were too short to be effective.

Sometimes, people purposely take days off from daily routines to be more creatives and focused. Bill Gates takes one week off from his busy life twice a year so that he does nothing but reading articles and books, studying and thinking about the bigger picture (McKeown, 2021). I do not remember when I took a week off for vacation the last time because I spent all my vacation and holidays doing projects. So, I decided to take to see what would happen from the day off.

Surprisingly, many Americans forfeit their vacation times. According to the Washington Post (August 28, 2019), 55% of Americans did not even use their vacation time, leaving 768 million days of unused paid time off. The average number of American’s paid days off is 17.4 days in 2018; however, this number includes paid holidays (para. 9-11). When I came to the United States, I was surprised by this. I am from Canada, and I worked in Germany, where we must provide paid statutory holidays.

Many Americans indeed chose not to use up their paid day off. Perhaps, many of us feel guilty about taking a vacation. Many of us fear we may be seen as more of a liability for the company to take time off. The question we must look into is – are those beliefs are correct? When I thought about this question, I realized that I do not know. I have heard about the benefit of taking breaks from problems or taking a vacation to affect people positively. I assumed that taking breaks allows us to get recharged. Since I was interested, I researched the benefits. Surprisingly, there is ample research about the effects of taking breaks.

Some consulting firms are discovering whether employees taking vacations benefits a company. According to Rook from JP Griff Group (June 3, 2019), the 2017 project study they conducted revealed that the employees who forfeit their vacation were 4 % less likely to receive raises and 6 % less likely to receive bonuses (para. 10). They found out that people who continue to work without a break or vacation; are less focused and less engaged. They are more likely to make mistakes because they are fatigued. It gets much harder to generate new ideas with an overused brain.

Taking days off improves our productivity has been empirically observed and is a generally accepted scientific theory. Some researchers observed the benefits from it; then, they further investigated how the benefits are created. Being away from work allows our brain to generate more ideas and solutions to the problem, which psychologists call the incubation effect. According to Ritter & Dijksterhuis (2014), the effects of incubation are generally accepted; however, there are two opposing theories of how the benefits are created, the Unconscious work theory and the conscious work theory. The Unconscious work theory suggests that our unconscious activity of solving the problem contributes to the effect. The Conscious work theory argues that the effect is caused by actively relaxing the brain by being away from the problem (pp.4-5).

A few days of incubating problems allows us to solve the problems, especially problems that require remote association. Researchers theorized that sleep has an essential role in the incubation effect. Scientists have found that REM sleep enhances our creativity. According to Wagner et al. (as cited in Ritter and Dijkstehuis, 2014), students who slept more than seven hours at least twice were more creative and solved problems faster than people who did not. Sleep enhances cognitive flexibility and the ability to find remote associations.

Furthermore, sleep allows students to find solutions to abstract problems (p. 4). This theory interested me because I had found that I could solve problems during dreaming when I was in high school. It tends to happen when I have been thinking about the same problem for at least three days. It happens a lot with me with math problems. The last time it occurred to me was a few months ago when I was building a query. Unfortunately, I cannot control this ability. I always speculated that my brain removes the limit of my creativity during sleep, which allowed me to solve the problem.  So, sleeping has a vital role in the incubation effect. Then we should not be spending our days off partying all night.

People need days off because taking days off allows us to walk away from the problems at work. There will be no phones, tablets, or laptops. Stay away from the work because you want to be actively not thinking about the work. Another important part is we still need to get adequate sleep during days off. After struggling to solve a problem, try to walk away from it. Sometimes working away from the problems leads us to their solutions.

This little research made me view vacations differently. Perhaps, we need breaks to be more productive and creative. I thought people say it to sound and humanely compliant for a company. We, accountants, flags other accountants if they do not take breaks—accountants believe in taking vacations to prevent fraud. We gain benefits from taking days off. After my investigation, I realized that we should take days off to be more focused, creative, and productive. Getting adequate sleep is also important while doing so. Sometimes, walking away from problems leads you to the solutions. Although, this may not be economically feasible for some people. According to the Center for Economic and Research, The United States requires zero yearly time off, much lower than France, Austria, Spain, Germany, Canada, and Japan (as cited in Sampson, August 28, 2019, para. 3). In some cases, people do not get paid off at all. Although, many of us do have paid vacation. If you choose not to use up the paid days off, you may want to reconsider taking them. I will try to use up my vacation this year, and I will try to go somewhere next time and note any differences.

References

McKeown, Greg. (2021). Essentialism. [Kindle edition].

Ritter, S. M., &Dijksterhuis, A. (2014). Creativity—The unconscious foundations of the incubation period. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00215

Rook, David. (June 3, 2019). JP Griffin Group. The Importance of Paid Time Off (PTO). https://www.griffinbenefits.com/blog/the-importance-of-paid-time-off-as-an-employee-benefit

Sampson, Hannah. (August 28, 2019). What Does America Have Against Vacation?https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/08/28/what-does-america-have-against-vacation/

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Escaping the Infinite Loophole

For years, I kept myself as busy as possible. I always had long-term and short-term goals, which I used for generating my to-do list. I earned a graduate degree and professional designations while I was working full time. I even managed to eat, sleep, and exercise regularly. Then, my husband became ill, and I almost lost him. The sense of guilt haunts me for being idle. Since my husband could not do some of the house chores, I took over all of them.

Despite the additional work, I managed to do some exercises with my busy schedule until some events would push me to the edge. Then, I was too busy to do some tasks such as exercising, sleeping, cooking good meals, or spending my time with my family or friends – which I now think should have been higher on my priority list. I neglected my body, social life, and mental life. As a result, I gained weight, felt ill and unhappy. My condition was affecting my husband. When I am felt low and sick, it made my husband feel sad.

I think I exceeded my actual capacity. Since it seemed to be working, I thought I could maintain this schedule rather than prioritizing tasks or delegating work. How arrogant and wrong I was. I felt physically and mentally ill several months ago. Since then, I have been rethinking my lifestyle. If I did not feel sick physically several months ago, I probably would have continued to ignore this impending problem.

It puzzled me why I could not detect this problem earlier. Perhaps, I have never seen this situation as a bad thing. We grow up with the mind that working hard is good behavior. My culture, Japanese, views overworked people as respectable people. We have people dying from overworking, which we describe as “Karoshi.” According to Reuters (2015), 1,456 Japanese people were reported dead from overworking in 2015; however, the actual number was probably ten times higher (para. 3). My parents always worked long and hard hours. My mother often came back late during month-end. Sometimes, she even brought back work at home and worked past midnight. My sister and I helped with household chores, but my mother worked a lot. Everyone around me worked long hours. This “overworking” syndrome is manifested in many countries throughout Asia. We believe that a respectable person must work hard; Confucius heavily influences this belief. I left my country a long time ago, but I never got rid of this norm or expectation.

Working excessively hard is physically and mentally unhealthy because the endless work puts us under a constant sense of urgency. The endless work makes us feel a lack of control. This feeling puts us under a lot of stress. When we are under constant pressure, our body goes into a fight-or-flight condition. According to Mayo Clinic (March 19, 2019), Our bodies increase adrenaline and cortisol production to prepare us to fight off danger. Of course, this is a survival mechanism. However, the long-term activation of the stress mechanism forces us to overexpose ourselves to cortisol and other stress hormones, which can harm our health in the long run (para 5-7). In my situation, my constant stress caused me anxiety, sleep problems, and weight gain. Unless I start managing my stress, I will endanger myself with a massive health risk. I realized I have to work on the root cause of my problems, leading me to be constantly stressed, which was my over-scheduling problem.

Working hard does not necessarily make us happy. Japanese often suffer from having low life satisfaction. According to the “life satisfaction” index from the organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD), Japan ranked one of the lowest among the 33 other member countries in the organization. Only 30% of Japanese perceived themselves as healthy, which was much lower than the OECD average of 69% (para. 1 – 3). I was getting unhappy because I noticed I was not getting things done as effectively as I thought. Why Should I be able to accomplish more? I lacked energy due to health neglect.

Hard work is not necessarily productive, and I was starting to notice this problem. I tend to make more errors. It took me longer to complete a single task as I became unhealthier. According to Morikawa Masayuki, the vice president of the research institute of economy, trade, and industry (March 5, 2019), Japanese productivity is the lowest among G7 countries. Their productivity is two-thirds of the United States. He pointed out that the Japanese work too long hours (para. 1- 9).

I still think it is good to work; however, we must understand our limits. Otherwise, we will risk our physical and mental health. If we are not careful, we could be working hard on something but not being very productive.

Life is all about making choices. Since we have limited time, we must be selective with what we do. Greg Mckeown (2020), the author of the book, essentialism, says this, instead of doing gazillions of things, accomplish the genuinely vital things. We must exercise essentialism, which is not about getting more things done, but it is all about allocating your time and energy to work on what is considered essential (pp. 6). It is just like business owners or managers who allocate their available resources to generate more profits for their company.

We should also choose a single highlighted task for the day. The task we prioritize must also satisfy us by completing it. Knapp and Zeratsky (2018) called this the most important thing as one high-priority goal, improving your satisfaction and providing energy to complete the rest of the tasks. This single priority must be significant and represent what you want to do. We must focus on this task and eliminate any distractions. Finally, we must make time to recharge your brain. Make time to exercise, eat food, sleep, allocate time for reflection and social time so that you can renew your energy (p. 20).

I started to be more selective on my to-do list. Initially, I was worried that I was doing less, so I ended up with two lists, one for work and one for personal; however, I had too many total items to complete to maintain a balanced life.  Now I have only one list with six things, one of which is my highlight. Surprisingly, I feel much better with only six list items. When I work on my highlight, I shut myself off from any distractions. I often have classical music on because background music usually helps me focus on my task. I keep my body’s batteries charged by exercising, sleeping, talking with others, and eating good food. Of course, I still make bad choices which I usually noted at the end of the day. I usually know when I make a mistake because I feel less happy at the end of the day. It is ok to make mistakes because I will start a new day tomorrow. As Scarlett from Gone with the wind famously says, “I’ll think of it all tomorrow. At Tara. I can stand it then. … After all. Tomorrow is another day” (Mitchell, p. 1024). I will learn from what did not go well, but I try not to cry over the spilled milk. Ever since I became selective about what I do, I feel like I have gained control over my life with much greater energy.

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Losing Weight Challenge #3: Make a Peace with My Body

To improve my physical and mental condition, I decided to work on changing my habits. I started with 45 minutes of Zumba 5 times a week, and then I gradually added additional requirements such as sleeping, water intake, a short daily meditation, muscle training, and calorie restriction. I checked my weight every morning to monitor my progress.

This round, I started with reading a book, Intuitive eating, introduced in the course, “Designing Your Personal Weight Loss Plan” from Coursera. I have done four diets that failed. When the professor pointed out the triggers for emotional eating, I felt the need to find out the root cause of my problems. I wanted to make peace with my body. I also added Yoga to work as part of my muscle training, and I removed Ring fit adventure for now. I thought I could also work on my flexibility with Yoga.

Intuitive Eating

After reading the book “Intuitive Eating,” I changed my approach to dealing with my eating, and I started listening to my body. According to Tribole and Resch (2020), many people failed to maintain weight after dieting because they tend to overeat once they relax their control eating. The mere contemplation of restricting foods pushes you to crave the forbidden foods resulting in your cravings escalating until you cannot resist them. The trigger of losing control often starts for many because they are too focused on the outcome of their dieting. Upon quitting a diet, many of us ended up binge-eating and feeling guilty (pp.642-658). I felt like they just described my situation. The recent study established a motivational trait of regaining weight after strict dietary restraints as “Disinhibition” (Bellisle, 2008). Disinhibition can cause not only psychological damage but also increase the risks of hypertension and diabetes. In other words, repeatedly failing diets is mentally and physically unhealthy.

I had to think about what triggers me to lose control of my eating. I am always on a diet. I maintain my weight pretty well because I exercise regularly. When my husband became ill, I lost control of my eating. I could not think about anything other than my husband’s health condition at the time. I stopped exercising altogether. I guess I always have emotional eating problems, but I completely lost control of eating this time. Two years after, I managed to lose all the weight with running and calorie restriction. I lost control of eating again because I was too busy with my work. This time, I gained back about half of the lost weight over six months when I started working again. It was high time to look into the cause of disinhibition to fix it somehow.

I seem to fit the following two eater styles from the book: chaotic unconscious eater and unconscious emotional eater. I actively overscheduled my life. So, I usually gobble my meals whenever I have time. Sometimes, I work or read while eating to save time. I am also an unconscious emotional eater. I tend to overeat when I am anxious, stressed, or sad.

Instead of starving myself, I decided to develop trust with food again by honoring my hunger. In the beginning, I was unsure of the sense of fullness. So, I started eating slower so that I could listen to my body. I also stop multi-tasking while I eat. Instead, I focused more on flavors or textures of food while I am eating. Gradually, I began to recognize satiety. 

Now I can eat anything I want as long as I listen to the needs of my body. I ate foods I had previously forbidden. Suddenly, a cookie is no longer as attractive. I also recognize my body wants more vegetables. I tried some vegetable recipes. When I am satisfied with foods, I do not have to eat as much.

Yoga – 2 sets of Sun Salutation

I started two sets of Sun Saltation every morning. It will be better if I do some yoga because my body is inflexible. I was investigating YouTube or Prime Videos for yoga programs. Eventually, my husband suggested adding a few sets of Sun Saltation every morning to start. 

It was pretty hard at the beginning, and I had to do a modified version. My first modification was of Alligator Pose after the plank. I had to lower my knees to ease the weight from my triceps. My second modification was to take baby steps back to the forward fold (2) position as it was not possible to step one foot and then the other to the forward fold (2) position.

Sun Salutation Routine

Namaste Prayer -> Upward Salute -> Forward Fold -> Left Leg Lunge -> Plank -> Alligator Pose -> Staff Pose -> Cobra -> Downward Dog -> Right Leg Lunge -> Forward Fold (2) ->Gratitude

Since I hardly do muscle training, I had muscle aches from doing this baby yoga routine initially. After one week, my muscle aches ceased. I do not want to compromise my form, so I am still using a modified version.

Challenges

2nd COVID Vaccination

Planning my meal is crucial for losing weight; however, this did not work out as I planned. We held a small family gathering for my husband’s birthday. Since I knew that my husband would request a lasagna for the meal, I decided to restrict calories by 100-150 calories per day and add a 15-minutes exercise three days before the birthday party. Unfortunately, three days before the gathering, I became ill from the 2nd COIVD Vaccination. I had a slight fever, tiredness, and endometriosis symptoms. I could not exercise for two whole days, and I could not eat well. I ate a small piece of lasagna and a lemon cake. At least I was able to exercise mindful eating still. The day after the party, I felt better, and I was starving. So, I ate slowly until I gained satiety. 

Overscheduling Problems

I still forget to exercise intuitive eating when I get busy. I overate three times in 4 weeks, which still made me feel guilty. There is absolutely no reason to feel guilty about overeating. So, I calmed down, and I thought about what caused me to forget to practice intuitive eating. I was under time pressure on all these three days because I overscheduled. 

Knowing when to Stop Eating

I still failed to feel satiety from eating. I suspected that I am frequently stressed out because I tend to overschedule my day. When I am not sure whether I am full or not, I stop eating for fear of over-eating. 

Discussion

This round, I lost 2.6 lb. The biggest reason I lost less this time was figuring out how to trust my body. I exceeded the 1,500 calorie restriction a few times. It is all right. At least, I am working on the root cause of the actual problems.

The key lesson I learned from this round was to work on identifying the triggers that cause me to overeat. I started to journal a stress score in my Fitbit so that I could monitor my stress levels. From my observation, When I am stressed, I become anxious. So, I overeat—most of my stress comes from my packed schedule. To work on this problem, I need to work on my overscheduling problem next.

I am thinking of getting into Yoga more seriously because I am gaining mental and physical benefits. I did my yoga session every day, and my body was loving it. I feel that I am getting more flexible, and it is becoming easier to maintain each pose. At the end of each yoga session, I thank that I start a new day. This little ritual made me calmer and filled with energy.

References

Bellisle, F. (2009). [Assessing various aspects of the motivation to eat that can affect food intake and body weight control]. L’Encephale, 35(2), 182–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.encep.2008.03.009

Tribole& Resch (2020). Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach. [Kindle edition]. St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

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Motivation is a Myth – Learning From DIY Dollhouse Project

About a month ago, I decided to complete a crafting project because I wanted to test whether motivation follows action or not. I watched a YouTube video, “Why Motivation is a Myth,” by Ali Abdaal. According to Jeff Haden (as cited in Abdaal, Jul 1, 2020), motivation is a sugar rush that never lasts. Progress creates a spark; thus, we must act upon it (1:15 – 2:12). This video made me think deeply. I am goal-oriented and favor a checklist because I gain great satisfaction in completing items. I picked a crafting project for this test because I am not good at completing crafting projects. Excitement does not seem to impact the probability of finishing a crafting project that takes more than several hours unless it is a school project. I hypothesized that I might change the outcome if I treat it as a required task instead. So, I made sure that this project was always on my to-do list, and I made sure to spend 15-30 minutes each day.

My second objective was to discover some of the benefits of crafting. I used to work for a head office for long-term & retirement facilities. I remember that activity therapists created an activity curriculum for our clients. The government funds those types of activities in Canada for long-term care facilities. Valid reasons must exist for them as professional therapists develop these curricula. This little experiment will be an excellent opportunity to discover their benefits.

Finally, I wanted to try crafting a tiny house to see whether it can be in my hobby repertoire. The best way to find out is to try it out myself.

I purchased Countryside Notes, a CuteBee Dy Dollhouse Miniature Kit for under $10 from Amazon. According to the vendor, the assembly time is 6-12 hours. Since I have never done crafting like this, I expected my completion time to be 12 hours.

Assembly Time

Motivation is a Myth – learning from DIY Dollhouse Project.

About a month ago, I decided to complete a crafting project because I wanted to test whether motivation follows action or not. I watched a YouTube video, “Why Motivation is a Myth,” by Ali Abdaal. According to Jeff Haden (as cited in Abdaal, Jul 1, 2020), motivation is a sugar rush that never lasts. Progress creates a spark; thus, we must act upon it (1:15 – 2:12). This video made me think deeply. I am goal-oriented and favor a checklist because I gain great satisfaction in completing items. I picked a crafting project for this test because I am not good at completing crafting projects. Excitement does not seem to impact the probability of finishing a crafting project that takes more than several hours unless it is a school project. I hypothesized that I might change the outcome if I treat it as a required task instead. So, I made sure that this project was always on my to-do list, and I made sure to spend 15-30 minutes each day.

My second objective was to discover some of the benefits of crafting. I used to work for a head office for long-term & retirement facilities. I remember that activity therapists created an activity curriculum for our clients. The government funds those types of activities in Canada for long-term care facilities. Valid reasons must exist for them as professional therapists develop these curricula. This little experiment will be an excellent opportunity to discover their benefits.

Finally, I wanted to try crafting a tiny house to see whether it can be in my hobby repertoire. The best way to find out is to try it out myself.

I purchased Countryside Notes, a CuteBee Dy Dollhouse Miniature Kit for under $10 from Amazon. According to the vendor, the assembly time is 6-12 hours. Since I have never done crafting like this, I expected my completion time to be 12 hours.

Challenges

It was a challenging project for me because I did not know how to use the tools properly. I bought a toolkit set. At the start, I used my fingers to craft. Soon, I realized that using the tweezers made some tasks were easier to do. Each pair of tweezers seems to have its best-suited job. Once, I picked up a piece with tweezers pinching so hard that the part flew out and – luckily – landed on the table. I learned that I needed to grab them carefully. 

 Not all kits come with all of the items required for crafting. After I opened the kit, I realized it did not come with either glue or batteries. Initially, I was using regular glue that would not affix certain parts together. After investigation, I discovered I should be using silicone glue. The most challenging part was to determine which batteries to use for this dollhouse. It took me few days to realize LR44 indicated on the instruction was the size of the batteries to use for this dollhouse. 

A minuscule measurement error can result in running out of materials. I had to substitute my hemp twine for the roof and a piece of gauze for the chairs. I did not have enough yarn to cover the rooftop. The cloth piece for chairs was missing from the kit. It is not so bad though, as long as they look alike, you can substitute anything from the house.

Benefits

While I was doing this project, I noted some recognized benefits of crafting from my experiment. Additionally, I researched the benefits of tucking with crafting activities. 

Develop Planning Skills

Planning is an essential part of a project like this. The instruction that came with the kit was pretty good, but it would not be perfect. So, I had to figure out these missing puzzles. For example, the instruction never mentioned creating a hole for the lighting fixture. I realized this when I was examining the house for the wiring. It can take multiple days to build one piece of furniture as the furniture may have numerous parts that cannot be attached simultaneously. For example, it took me three separate days to construct the cooking oven because it was difficult to glue the shelving for the furniture and accessories on the same day without breaking other parts. So, I chose to make various pieces of furniture at the same time. I read multiple pages of instructions and wrote a plan. Numerous components of furniture were created simultaneously and completed at the same time.

Develop Problem Solving Skill

You develop problem-solving skills from crafting because there are always difficulties in assembling something so tiny and fragile. I had a problem keeping the ground steady due to the wires for the lights. I created a housing from cardboard to hold the wires together and stuck the cardboard housing directly to the tin can. I used toothpicks to hold the ground piece until it adhered to the tin can. The next day, I was utterly disappointed to find out it did not glue well. I needed a more appropriate glue to adhere to the pieces. After I got silicone glue, I glued a cardboard frame to mount the base to the tin can. This part took me three days—another problem I solved by using more appropriate tweezers. I did not even know which tweezers to use.

It’s a Mentally Stimulating Activity 

Crafting will prevent aging in the brain. The number of myelin decreases as we age, which prevents us from accepting new challenges later in life. The brain is plastic, and it will continue to grow at any age by learning new skills. People who continuously engage in learning new skills prevent their brain’s demyelination because they continually develop their neural pathways. When the neural pathways are hardened from more practice, the newly learned activity will become easier to perform. According to Krell-Roesch et al. (2017), older adults who performed the following five types of mentally stimulating activities such as reading books, playing games, craft activities, computer use, and social activities at least 1-2 times per week reduced the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Although their study did not conclude why that is the case; however, they assume that a particularly mentally stimulating activity helped decrease the risk of developing MCI (page. 7). It wasn’t easy to use the tools, but it got more manageable with practice. I assume I regrew some myelin by doing this project.

Learning Something New

I learned something new from this project. I’ve never built a dollhouse, so this project was an exciting experience for me. I found I could not use just any glue to attach wood pieces to the tin can. There is a valid reason why a tool kit contains multiple Tweezers because each has different usage. There are many sizes of watch batteries. I found YouTubers posted a video on building a tiny dollhouse like this. Some of them use a variety of scavenged household materials to create a dollhouse.

Discussion

Relying solely on motivation will not help us complete some tasks because motivation decreases over time. As Jeff Haden pointed (Tedx Talks, May 24, 2019), you may have a teacher to sustain your motivation when you are at school. This is not true when you do a project for yourself because no one will keep inspiring or motivating you throughout achieving the goal (0:35-0:59). I studied hard to obtain a professional designation for a steady income. I have completed various crafting projects because I got awards from winning the crafting contests. When you are doing a project for someone else, you also have some external rewards. When I want to do something for myself, like losing weight or crafting, my motivation decreases. I was so focused on the outcome but not its process so I did not even notice my improvements or progress. Eventually, I quit the project altogether. The accumulated failures made me feel like a loser and a quitter with enormous guilt for creating an additional trail of failures.

The crucial part of sustaining motivation is to understand how people get motivated. Jeff Haden explained (Tedx Talks, May 24, 2019), you must generate your own motivation. Once you find something you want to do for yourself, create a plan to complete it. You will need to put in the right effort. When you feel some improvement or progress, it generates dopamine in your brain. Then, your motivation will increase to continue with your project the next day. It is a cycle that helps you to complete a task (3:59 – 4:42). I got frustrated at some challenges I had during the project. However, I systematically approached each problem. Every time I overcame the obstacle, I could see some improvements. I was keen on such improvements because I was actively seeking the benefits of crafting. More importantly, I saw the progress throughout the project. Approximately around the 10th day, I was no longer relying on completing my checklist or the outcome. I was confident I would complete this project.  

So, motivation will follow by acting on it because you will generate motivation by seeing your progress or improvement. I obtained immense satisfaction by completing this project because I regained my capability to complete a project for myself. I understand why it is essential to focus on the process instead of focusing on the outcome. I saw the benefits of focusing on the process. I am now sure this is how I should approach projects for myself.

I am already planning to build another dollhouse. I saw many benefits from working on this project. Crafting provides people with great benefits because it forces us to think, plan, and practice. I learned many things from this project. Eventually, I wanted to create a miniature theme from our household scavenged materials. I consider dollhouse making to be in my hobby repertoire. 

References

Abdaal, Ali. (2020, July, 2020. Why Motivation is a Myth [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzAuvOr-YsM&ab_channel=AliAbdaal

Haden, Jeff (2019, May 24). The Most Successful Person in the World | Jeff Haden | TEDxPaloAlto [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLFqoofiiBg&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Krell-Roesch, J., Vemuri, P., Pink, A., Roberts, R. O., Stokin, G. B., Mielke, M. M., Christianson, T. J. H., Knopman, D. S., Petersen, R. C., Kremers, W. K., &Geda, Y. E. (2017). Association Between Mentally Stimulating Activities in Late Life and the Outcome of Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment, With an Analysis of the APOE ε4 Genotype. JAMA Neurology, 74(3), 332. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2016.3822

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Procrastinating? Sometimes, It Is Better To Act On the Tasks

We had a carpeted storage room. The storage room has a light, and it was good size room. To make the space more usable, we decided to create shelving units. We also decided to remove the carpet and install a hardwood floor. I am a big fan of the YouTuber April Wilkerson. She has filmed so many DIY projects and uploaded them to her Channel. I want to learn how to do woodworking or carpentry like her, and this project was an excellent project to start. I was initially excited by imagining completing the project ourselves.

It took several months to start the project because I was procrastinating. I was hesitant to start the project because I felt anxious about starting. I was not ready for this task at all. I was so scared that I am not comfortable with the job. The last time I worked on flooring was a decade ago. So doing this project itself feels very risky because we might screw up the renovation. So, I sat with the idea for a long time without doing anything about it. Murray (2018) pointed out many of us procrastinate for various reasons, and some fit my situation.

  • Fear of the unknown
  • Fear of making mistakes
  • Wanting everything to be perfect or completely ready first
  • Fear of taking risks
  • Tasks seem too hard

A little procrastination is merely a peccadillo because it can damage us exponentially. Steel (as cited in Rice et al., 2012) studied the level of performance and mood outcomes resulting from procrastination. Steel concluded that procrastination could relieve anxiety only temporarily. Yet, the participants reported negative moods following procrastination (p. 3). The primary source of my distress was the guilt of delaying the project. The psychological damage impacted my mood; thus, it started affecting the performances of other activities. 

Since procrastination can harm us both mentally and physically, why do we procrastinate? I guess just like Steel pointed at (as cited in Rice et al., 2012), it makes us feel better. The problem is the effect is only temporary (p. 3). It is like moving the pile of garbage from one corner of the room to the other corner of the room. The garbage stays and continuously torments me until I remove them. Rice et al. (2012) also concluded perfectionists tend to procrastinate. Procrastination correlates with poor health performance due to psychological distress resulting from procrastination (p. 12).

Procrastination prevents us from growing because it promotes stagnation in our growth. In the modern, rapidly shifting era, we need to acquire skills to deal with new challenges to survive. Murray (2018) said we don’t even see the reason for it as they hide very well. Procrastinating conflicts with our rapidly changing external world just like Homo sapiens were engaging complex planning 100,000 years ago, enabling them to evolve. At the same time, the Neanderthals were resistant to go out into the cold from their comfortable cave (para. 9). Procrastinating is one way for us to conserve energy, but on the other hand, we must start working on more complex tasks to evolve with our rapidly shifting eras.

I gained no benefits from this procrastination. It was pretty uncomfortable sitting with a non-progressed project. I remembered reading Brian Tracy’s “Eat That Frog,” Tracy (2001) recommends eating the ugliest frog first thing in the morning to be productive if you must eat one. So, I decided to deal with my frog. 

To overcome my procrastination, I did list the possible challenges from this project to deal with them one by one.

  1. Can I Install a hardwood floor by myself? It has been a long time since I did the hardwood floor installation last time. Since this was the first experience for my husband to install a hardwood floor or a shelving unit, I will be leading this project.
  2. Can I build a strong shelving unit for our storage room? I was unsure whether the method I wanted to use will work for this space.
  3. Which tools do I need to buy?
  4. How long will this project take?
  5. How much will this project costs?
  6. When can I start this project? I will not start this project until October as I was leading a large project at work.

By looking at the list of my challenges, I can overcome these obstacles with some researches. Instead of doing everything at once, do section by section. The project can be broken into two main tasks. 

  1. Installation of the hardwood floor
    1. Installation of the hardwood floor
    2. Installation of the Baseboards
  2.  Installation of the shelving Units
    1. Installation of Shelving supports
    2. Installation of Shelving units
    3. Paint shelving units

I could deal with the root of my anxiety by researching how to complete the project. So, I researched YouTube channels and other blog posts on installing hardwood flooring, baseboards, and shelving units. I decided to use engineered flooring because it seems easier. We bought the hardwood flooring from Home Depot online. When I was researching, I observed the tools each YouTuber was using. We must get a few tools such as a Miter saw a jigsaw, a level, a Pry Bar, Spacers, and a tapping block. A miter saw can be expensive, but we can use it for other projects. 

We decided that the best time to start the project was Columbus day since I knew I would be busy until the last day of September. We purchased tools and materials in small increments over four months until the starting day. We still had four months until the project starting day. We have a compact passenger car, so it was impossible to purchase everything at once. Unexpectedly, having a tiny car created more challenges than any other source. Thanks to my husband’s surfeit of packing skill, we managed to carry all tools and materials we purchased. Later, I found out that Home Depot rents out a truck and will consider renting it for future projects.

Initially, I estimated we would complete this project by the end of Thanksgiving day; however, it took longer due to my stomach problems. We completed the project by the end of last year. The outcome was better than what we had originally thought, even though it was far from perfect. Since we took a long time planning and purchasing materials and tools, it cost us approximately $150 less than I budgeted. We may not have a perfect storage room, but it is functional. The important thing is that I regained my confidence, but I finally managed to remove my psychological distress. I gained satisfaction from completing the project ourselves.

We already have another plan for home renovation. Since neither of us is a professional renovator, it will be another challenge for us. But, that will be another chance to learn something new.

New Hardwood Flooring in the Storage Room
Used Wall Mounting Technique for Pantry Shelving
Completed Pantry Shelving

References

Tracy, Brian (2001), Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Errett-Koehler.

Murray, John. (2018). Start now, get perfect later: how to make smarter, faster & bigger decisions & banish procrastination. [Skillsoft version] Available from <https://roberthalf.skillport.com/skillportfe/main.action?assetid=149423>

Rice, K. G., Richardson, C. M. E., & Clark, D. (2012). Perfectionism, procrastination, and psychological distress. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(2), 288–302.