Sayum AEP 14 day challenge debrief

 I'm  happy with how I did in this challenge overall. I think I stayed pretty consistent, except when I really couldn't because in the middle of the challenge I got sick and was knocked out completely for around 3 days. But I did end up doing up to day 20 to make up for that. My performance definitely wasn't the best but it wasn't bad either. It was rough but at least I finished it. Kind of. so, not horrible.

The hardest thing was probably just remembering to post and update my game plan/results. It wasn't that bad for my game plan at the start of the day because I'd just do it while eating breakfast. And after a few days it became a part of my morning routine. But when it came to updating my results, I end up forgetting to. I forgot to do it like 4 or 5 times I think. Maybe a bit less, I'm not really sure. although not an excuse, I usually forget because I'd have varsity training after school and when I eventually get home all I can think of is sleep. I have since reduced that habit of mine though so that's nice. I also forgot to upload my results on the days I was sick and just tired after school. 

However, again, I'm pretty happy with my results. If I remember correctly I didn't eat any of the cupcakes I banned in my pre plan for the entire challenge. Also cut down on "stickos" towards the end. Which I'm pretty proud of because I used to eat way too many them. I also got a decent amount of sleep each day. (Which doesn't normally happen.) I was pretty productive overall during this challenge. But probably my biggest feat/accomplishment during this challenge was my "YouTube shorts" ban. I remember I was able to cut down on it. A LOT. It's the thing that affects my productivity negatively the most. But I was able to overcome it quite a bit. I try my best to continue to keep it up and even though it's still something I struggle with, I've reduced my time on it by a lot. 

OVERALL it was fun and challenging. I still try to continue the habits I somewhat formed from this challenge. I'm not sure what else to say so I suppose I'll cut it off here. yay.

Janek - AEP 9 - TERM 3 - AEP's 14-day challenge debrief.

  

 The 14-day challenge, as its name suggests, was an initiative that asked students to embark on a 14-day journey to eliminate negative habits. It was introduced to the AEP courses in February. Even though it seemed simple, it was difficult for people like myself to break these habits. Now that March is here, I can undoubtedly say that this is true. It was too much to bear the effort required to even write a game plan or refrain from acting in ways that I'd been having trouble with. Although I couldn't stand it, I had to do it for Miss Disa as well as prove to myself that I gave this assignment my all. So let me share with you my experience

On the day this challenge was announced, Miss gave us a breakdown of the specific tasks we would need to complete by the 14th day. They were what I would have expected from a task like this, but to assume they would be simple is naive. And I was absolutely correct. Before starting the actual challenge, the day when we had to write our pre-challenge preparation was overwhelming. I spent a lot of time considering how I would complete the tasks correctly. However, this was insufficient. And following were the pre-challenge preparations:

2.  4pm/6pm/8 pm id have my snack break

3. Stop procrastinating and playing video games

4. Try to regularly drink more water than other drink

5. Fix your sleep schedule by sleeping earlier (9-10 pm)

6. Try to give kind gestures and overall act in a proper manner

7. Do whatever homework is assigned 

I have to adhere to these rules over the course of 14 days in order to finish it. I had previously struggled with these issues, so I used this challenge as a chance to address them, become more responsible, and take better care of myself. I think I did particularly well in this segment. I would stay true to the Exercise snacks for the entire 14-day period, drink more than 5 glasses of water each day, sleep for roughly 7-9 hours each night, help others and look for ways to improve their days, or just generally be kind to others, and finally, I would finish my homework and other tasks by the end of the day. Many of which I talked about on the 14-day challenge padlet where we would share what has to be done each day as well as the outcomes at the end. This was for Miss Disa to be able to keep track of our development, this was also one of the primary objectives of the challenge.

My final grade was 88/100, which I consider being a decent score. I had one task that really put stress on me and made the challenge even tougher, as you can probably tell by the fact that it was removed from the list in the previous paragraph. It was number 2, and it was to refrain from playing video games as a means of procrastination. I frequently devote more time to playing games than to schoolwork because I am an avid gamer. And it was really difficult for me to establish one of my goals to stop playing. It was horrible to have to limit my playtime and concentrate on other things. Similar to denying a book to a bookworm or a basketball to a basketball player, etc. It was my leisure activity, my chance to unwind and enjoy a game. However, this obstacle took away from my opportunity to play. However, I chose not to let this discourage me and continued with the challenge to see whether or not I was up to the task. This didn't persist for very long, though, and by the time it was through it was clear that I had forgotten about the challenge. I would go on to play for hours without realizing I had failed the assignment.

This had a negative mental impact on me by the end of the challenge, but I didn't accept it without getting something out of it. I learned a lot of things from the challenge along the road, and I'll apply them to everything I do going forward. I am grateful to Miss Disa for giving me this challenge since it has helped me improve in many different ways. Overall excellent idea; looking forward to further AEP activities. I'll see you all in the next post. That's all for now. BYE BYE!

14-Day Challenge Debrief- Meral- AEP 9

From how I see it, a habit takes a minimum of 21 days to master. When we form a habit, there is a chemical dopamine that is released to the brain, adding on to a sense of accomplishment and strength in one’s abilities. It doesn’t only increase our belief in oneself, but also enables us to perform the best of our abilities. Looking back into the duration of the 14-day challenge and all that I’ve achieved throughout, I believe I did fairly well as I managed to mostly score myself with 9’s and 10’s by the end of each day. Although, I have to admit, there is room for improvement.

For my pre-challenge, my main plan was to lessen the time I spend watching YouTube after school. Honestly I wasn’t expecting to completely fulfill this one but surprisingly most days I didn’t even visit YouTube and gradually forgot about it or there were a few days in which I watched for less than an hour, usually later on in the day to give myself a rest upon arriving home from long days filled with classes. Additionally the one specific task for a day was a good way to identify my priorities and track my progress.

My healthy diet challenge was to replace chocolates with a plate of salad. Now that I think about it, I might’ve chosen the easy way out with this one because I don’t eat chocolates as often as another unhealthy habit, which would be coffee. Although my sleeping schedule wasn’t horrible during this two week time period, I still needed my daily cup of coffee to function. So perhaps choosing water over coffee would’ve been a good improvement. Good news though, I am currently drinking less coffee and staying hydrated with water, upon breaking my fast of course :>. 

From the rest, this task was my least consistent one since I would sometimes forget to make myself a salad plate (but I would still eat it from the dinner table anyway). I did consume as little chocolate as much as possible but somehow I was offered a lot at the time right when I was trying to avoid it. As I’ve mentioned previously, my sleep schedule wasn’t completely horrible during the 14-days, so for the most part, I successfully got sufficient hours of sleep. 

Next up, the exercise snacks were quite helpful in fueling me to stay active, with designated times best suited for me (3:30 pm, 5:15 pm, 7:00 pm). For the first few days, I thought exercise snacks meant actual healthy snacks and I only realized later that it’s actual exercise where I had to get up/ stop whatever I was doing at the given time, for a quick exercise. It’s quite funny cause my mom was questioning why I was eating snacks as part of the challenge and that’s when I realized… Anyway I walked a lot for the remaining days I had to make up for it. 

Last but not least was the acts of kindness for each day. This challenge made me realize how a small kind act to someone can switch up their day to a better one. These little acts of kindness are quite significant. Whether that be spreading positivity, giving a helping hand, sharing, or looking after my pets, it definitely was a great reminder to me. Not to mention, this included the acts of kindness to myself such as allotting time to nurture my hobbies and interests, which I looked forward to as it sparks out joy.

Ultimately, the 14-day challenge was an eye opener as it enabled me to set out and accomplish some short term goals. As a person who makes to-do lists daily, this challenge enabled me to list out my main priorities as building blocks to creating new habits. I struggled most with remembering to update on my results in time as I found 7:00 pm too early to be able to finish off everything. I guess this could be because I work most efficiently during evenings and midnights. To sum it up, this definitely has to be my personal favorite project because it taught me the importance of being responsible with skills that can help me grow in terms of time management for setting habits. Thank you for reading and I'm hoping to see you in the next one!

Signing off,

Meral