Reflections and Images

2019 is coming up, and that means new goals for yourself. Unfortunately, most New Year resolutions don't work out. But don't lose hope. I will mention some useful applications on your computer that can boost your productivity. I hope that some of these applications/extensions are new to you and can help you. After using these applications, I am more focused and usually  check distracting activities once a day during the weekdays. On the weekends, I might cheat and check distracting websites more than I should be, but my relationship with the computer definitely has improved. StayFocusd: This chrome extension is a good starter. After using the maximum amount of time allowed per day for the blocked sites, StayFocusd blocks them. There is also a nuclear option, which can block every single website or all websites except for allowed ones. The problem with StayFocusd is that it only works on Google Chrome, and if you still feel tempted to watch YouTube, you can technically go on ...

Like most weekends, I would passively consume information by surfing the internet about stupid things, like the news. I would feel drained, exhausted, and confused why I even used the computer in the first place. Sometimes, I felt like I was controlled by the computer. This would consume around 3 hours of my entire week. I would beat myself up, wondering why was I wasting time on things that really didn't matter. I was sick of it and wanted a better life. Inspired by Cal Newport, I started participating in the 30-day digital declutter experiment on December 26th, 2018. Cal Newport's idea about digital minimalism comprises 3 parts. The first part was to take a break from optional technologies . Although I don't use social media, which is an optional technology that Newport criticizes the most, some other optional technologies I do includes reading blogs, watching YouTube, searching random things online, and messaging with my friends. The second part was to identify what re...

Note: What I define as happy isn't the same for everyone. I understand how everyone has their own unique definition of what happiness exactly is. I would be happy to hear different opinions about this topic!  Although our current goals as students are to go to a good college, study hard, and get a good job, the ultimate goal in life is to be happy. For me, the question "What makes me happy?" has been around in my mind for quite a long time. I would say that in order to be happy, there are 4 main factors: mental, social, emotional and physical health.  I am not going to go over each factor in detail because I will cover ones that I currently struggle with. I think another important part of happiness comes from productivity, which I will elaborate upon because I find it crucial to my own happiness. If one of these factors are not met, happiness can't be fully achieved. In terms of mental health, it can be kind of hard to be happy all the time when you face academic ...

Last Friday, I attended my first Toastmasters Youth Training. Currently, my public speaking skills need some improvement. The first speech was an introduction about ourselves so we can know each other better. I hope you enjoy my icebreaker speech. It isn't really chronological because I focus on a theme that is found throughout my entire life. For those that would ask me, "Where are you from?" I struggle to think of an answer. Based on the longest place I lived in, it would be Colorado. For me, I never had an actual place to call "home sweet home." After moving 5 times over the course of my life (and I mean moving to completely different places), I have a hard time deciding where I exactly belong. Here is my journey: New Jersey, Indiana, Colorado, Taiwan, and California. Although moving a lot has made it hard for me to feel a sense of belonging, there are some positive changes that happened after moving to a new place, especially Taiwan. When I heard that we we...

As students, we are told to get good grades, study for tests, and take the most challenging classes. We admire and aspire to become the class valedictorian or salutatorian. Most of us predict that these people will become very successful in life ( I mean successful as in becoming a millionaire and famous in their field). However, my perspective about this changed after I read Eric Barker's Barking Up the Wrong Tree. Barker's book debunks common myths about success. In the beginning, he mentions how according to a university study, most valedictorians don't become millionaires*. At first, this was a surprise to me. How could it be these smart geniuses that don't become millionaires? He said that valedictorians follow the rules as I stated before and conform to society's expectations. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are supposed to break the rules and focus on their passion rather than becoming a generalist by taking every single hard class. In fact, the average GPA...

Like most students during finals week, I was obsessively calculating what I needed to get on my final to maintain or boost my grade. After reading a few blogs by Cal Newport about GPA and high school, I realized how my attitude towards school was more extrinsic than intrinsic. After reading his post about how unconventional straight A students ignore their GPA , I was surprised how I never thought this was an actual concern. His blog mentions how when students care too much about their GPA, not only does it put a lot of stress on the student, it also ignores more important goals a student should be focused on. What I got the most out of the blog post was how my ultimate goal as a student wasn't really the numbers; rather, it is to focus more on the learning journey. In other words, school is a learning process that is a cycle by learning our past failures and thinking about how to improve in the future. It is training ourselves to be stronger and more resilient (in my respectful op...