Time sink...

I've worked so hard for a couple of weeks now. I put more time and effort into my work. But sadly, the outcome was not so good. I take much more time to done the thing I had done before. What's happen? What's wrong with me? I felt very bad. I'm tired. May be I need a break...

What I've been doing so far...

It has been almost two months now since I began my self improvement program. This is a recap of my progress. I will breakdown them into topics.

Habits

1. Sleep Early - Still sleep late 2-3 days a week. Need to focus more. I wish to do 14 days consecutively.

2. Exercise - Very few exercises. Didn't making progress at all. If I can sleep early and wake up early everyday, I can manage time for this.

3. Lose Weight - Went up and down, end up losing just about 1 kg. Need exercise!

4. Eat Healthy - For this topic I think I'm doing ok. I eat less bad food but still need to eat more vegetables.

Career

1. Productivity - I've tried Pomodoro, Weple Today, Eat That Frog, Any.DO, Evernote and RescueTime. All Good stuffs. Help me focus. I also spend less time on Facebook and gaming.

2. Skills - I start learning with free online courses from Udemy, Digital-Tutors and various other websites. I think I will pay for subscription in the future.

3. Jobs - I did quite well for a major task. Better communication with co-workers. Still need to hone my skills and speed up my work.

Finance

1. YNAB - Use it everyday. Very familiar with the software now. 

2. Spending - I check my budget before I buy something now. Good habit.

3. Saving - I decide to ditch my past remaining money and start building up the buffer again just to have more experience with YNAB and to spend less.

My motto: Tomorrow will be better!

Discrepancy Madness

Today I decide to compare my actual money with the balance in YNAB so I update my bank account before I came home.

I thought it would be easy since I am really sure that I record every transaction manually for the past two months. I use a simple calculation that is 'My Bank Account Balance' + 'Cash' should be equal to 'Working Balance' in YNAB.

But that is wayyyyyy wrong! Since my records consist of both 'actual transactions' (real money spent and done) and 'virtual transactions' like credit card payment that weren't really paid yet. For my miscalculation the discrepancy was nearly 9,000! It can't be, right?

I start to rethink about it and found that the problem is involve with those 'virtual transactions'. So I made a new calculation that the 'Cleared Balance' should be equal to ('My Bank Account Balance' + 'Cash' - 'Virtual Transactions'). Came out that the result is much more accurate, however the difference is still near 2,000.

Again, I think hard about the result and how could it be. I then searching the YNAB forum for the possible answer and found that many had the similar problem. What I learn is it's not the software problem at all, it works perfectly. Some people just forget to record something, some have minor inconsistency here and there and they added up, it could be anything - for me it could be just a simple answer that I forgot to add my cash at the time I start using YNAB.

No matter what it is, just get over it, adjust the balance and move on. It's that simple.

Budgeting is an eye opener.

I used to think that I have enough saving for most emergency case and also enough for occasional big spending that I'd like to. 

It's true that I've spent much less than what I earned so I'm not quite at the risk of being in debt but the real problem lies with the saving. Though it's not that much and it's clearly far from considering rich, the amount of saving that is many times larger than my salary give me a fault idea of security.

But after I got YNAB and started budgeting for real, I found that the financial security I think I have is just a big illusion. When I assign jobs to all of my money, I saw that I don't stand a chance if major damage do happen. It's not safe enough for amy situation. 

Now I start making more saving goals to cover all those risks. It's good to know that I'm not prepared when I still have time to prepare. Better safe than sorry. Budgeting is crucial in my life now.

Be better

The key to success is not to be the best, but to always be better.

Game Idea Generator

I just stumble upon this cool toy/tool for game designer. It calls 'Game Idea Generator' from the guy who made the famous (or notorious?) online simulation game Cookie Clicker.

GIG tool can generate game idea from text-base seed. Why do I explain this? It's so damn easy to understand and so straight forward. There's also a Sanity check that I can guess what it's for but see no different of checked/unchecked it yet.

Anyway, I'll use this tool for me game design exercise that I plan to do once a week from now on.

Task Priority & Time Managemnt

by Sarasin Viraphol, Ph.D
Summarize from http://www.oknation.net/blog/print.php?id=421217

Compare the workload for one's mind with a bucket and the tasks with element to fill in.
You should focus on tasks by this priority.

1. Rock = Important & Not Urgent (B-Tasks)
2. Pebble = Important & Urgent (A-Tasks)
3. Sand = Not Important & Urgent (C-Tasks)
4. Water = Not Important & Not Urgent (D-Tasks)

B Tasks should be focusing on the most because it's often the big thing that make the most different. If you good at managing B Tasks, the chances that A-Tasks happen to you is lessen.

Eat That Frog

One Sentence Summary

- Prioritize every task and focus on finishing the most important task first every time.

New words I learn in the past weeks.

After I start my self-improvement program a few new words keep showing up on my screen. Why I consider them "New" is because I never heard of it in my life. Here's what it means in Thai.

Reconcile - ประนีประนอม, ไกล่เกลี่ย, ทำให้ปรองดองกัน, ทำให้คืนดีกัน, ทำให้ลงรอยกัน, ทำให้เชื่อมกัน,ในแง่การเงินคือการเปรียบเทียบยอดระหว่างงบหรือบัญชี

Reimburstment - การชำระเงินคืน, ใช้เงินคืนที่ออกไปก่อน

Procrastination - การผลัดวันประกันพรุ่ง, เลื่อนไปก่อน, ทำให้ชักช้า

Pomodoro Technique - เทคนิคการบริหารเวลา โดยตั้งเวลาไว้ที่ 25 นาที จากนั้นให้จดจ่อกับงานนั้นๆ ตลอด 25 นาทีโดยไม่สนใจสิ่งอื่นๆ เมื่อครบเวลา 25 นาทีแล้ว ให้หยุดพัก 5 นาที แต่หากทำไปครบ 4 รอบแล้วให้พักยาวได้ ทำเช่นนี้ไปเรื่อยๆ จะทำให้เราทำงานได้เต็มที่ (คำว่า Pomodoro แปลว่า มะเขือเทศ มาจากภาษาอิตาเลียน ซึ่งเป็นที่มาของชื่อเพราะ ผู้คิดค้น Francesco Cirillo ใช้ที่จับเวลารูปมะเขือเทศเป็นต้นแบบ)

Magic Work Cycle or 30/30 Minute Work Cycle - เทคนิคบริหารเวลาอีกแบบหนึ่ง คล้าย Pomodoro แต่สลับไปมาระหว่างทำงานกับพักอย่างละ 30 นาที (ดูแล้วไม่น่าจะได้ผลเท่า Pomodoro)

My Life Goals

Daily Goals

• Self Improvement
• Do my best for work
• Sleep early & Get up early
• Spend within budget
• Exercise
• Be reality-optimistic

Short Team Goals

• Clear my stuffs
• Find more income

Long Term Goals

• Saving for 1st Million
• Make "my own" successful game

Ultimate Goal

• My Princess

. . .

What is this blog about?
It's the blog about me, by me, and for me - Wam a.k.a. SiXX a.k.a. FreedomPortal. I will write what I want to write here. The target audience is me and whoever cares.

Why do I make this blog?

Writing is always an itch to me. Not because I'm good at it but because I'm too often quit writing or lack motivation and inspiration.

I'm now starting to form my own self-improvement program. I try several things right now, gave up too much in the past, and want to be a better person everyday from now on.

Who am I?
I'm a game developer in Bangkok, Thailand. Born and lived here for too long. Currently finding a way to move on.

What's with the blog title?
It derived from a famous phrase fin Super Mario Bros. "Your Princess Is In Another Castle".
I choose this not because I'm a fan of Mario. Actually, I didn't play much Mario at all. I choose it because it has a meaning to me. I realize that my princess is not near me, she's far far away and it remind and motivate me to get there some day.