SPRINT THREE REFLECTIONS

My Reflections - Sprint Three

Mindfulness

Do you have any biases for or against mindfulness? If so, can you describe them?

Mindfulness is great! The problem is committing to practicing it consistently.

Think of mindfulness as a present-state awareness that helps you to be non-reactive.

"Why is mindfulness essential? First, achievement without appreciation is a Pyrrhic victory, and mindfulness helps cultivate appreciation. Put another way, if you can’t be happy with what you have, you’ll never be made happy by what you get. Second and related, after just a week of mindfulness practice, you will complain less, react less, and more effectively fill your life with what’s important and valuable to you." ― Timothy Ferris.

How did you find the overall experience?

• I find I can be resistant to starting any kind of practice.
• Sometimes knowledge is not enough and we need to step into action.
• I have noticed that when I'm meditating more, I am less reactive and I tend to have greater Big Picture thinking, which in itself reduces stress.

What's your daily habit commitment?

Take time every Sunday to prepare for the week ahead.

1. Prepare my calendar. Look at what's coming up in the week and schedule in my next actionable steps and what I want to get done for the day. Look at the week as a whole and then break down the tasks for each day.
2. Take time away from my computer and phone. Even if it's 30 minutes to not be connected to the world.

3. Enjoy each day and take time for the important things in life - friends, family, yourself!

4. 10 minutes of meditation in the morning when I wake up.

5. I read fiction or anything that interests me in the morning with a coffee. I find it can take my mind out of focused 'problem-solving mode' and into diffused 'problem-solving mode.' I have had the most 'breakthroughs' and ease after a good night's sleep, exercise, and generally relaxing with a good book.

Listening and Looping

What was it like to be fully listened to?

• Our conversation veered from the formal constraints of the exercise. We didn't set a timer for two minutes, but we did Zoom for an hour and discuss our thoughts and feelings about the course - still listening to one another.
• It was nice to feel a sense of camaraderie in terms of how we are feeling about the course, its pace, the course in the context of Covid, our backgrounds.
• I spoke to someone from Wellington, so that was interesting!

What was it like to fully listen?

• I often wanted to interject with my own thoughts and experiences, but as we discussed, if someone comes to you and wants advice, it's good to know what they're looking for.
• Do they want to be listened to and receive advice from a friend, a mentor, a therapist? Knowing those expectations will change the dynamic of the conversation and make it easier to 'know' how to listen and respond.

Learning JavaScript

What did you notice about your learning style? What resources worked for you and why?

• I'm using Colt Steele's The Web Developer course on Udemy and I think Colt is an amazing teacher.
• I'm also using other resources, but I feel comfortable continuing with this course.

Did you keep within the timebox suggestions? If not, was it due to difficulty understanding the basics, or a feeling like you had to master the basics?

• I have certain ideals in my mind about how I want things to look, so it is more related to wanting to go deeper into the material, yet I understand this is the time for breadth.
• Learning to let go of finishing everything sequentially has been useful for me, too.
• I like the idea that I can always come back and tweak something, so it doesn't have to be perfect right off the bat.

DevTools Tutorial

What did you notice about your learning style, strengths, and limitations when doing this crash course?

• I do feel I'm spending a lot of time reflecting versus up-taking new information, but considering that the course runs until mid December, it makes sense to dedicate this amount of time to reflections and to construct a solid plan.

Did any blocks come up for you? How did you overcome them?

• GitHub was a block for me. Now it's all working!
• I googled GitHub Cheat Sheets and then copy and pasted the code from my terminal into a Notion app. Now, each time I want to stage, commit, and push to git, I have multiple examples stored in Notion to refer to.
• Sometimes I have to pull before I can push in order to synchronize the remote files with the local files. That's basically it now.

How many tabs do you have open in your web browser right now? What is the ratio of study related tabs to distraction related tabs?

• 5 tabs.
• My Blog
• EDA Handbook
• GitHub Repo
• Notion app
• Harvard Researchers on Mindfulness.

Did you do something funny with the Dev Tools, like insert your own name or some inappropriate words into the DOM of a website? If not, do so now. It's hilarious and a great way to amuse your non-technical friends. They will think you are a hacker wizard.

Editing Mark Zuckerberg's profile on Fb was my first experience playing with the Dev Tools.