why t.yc.sg? travel, technology and thoughts all start with t, and that's exactly what this space is for, a place to share my travels, thoughts, and technology-related stuff.
The Importance of Routine and Convenience in Forming Habits
In early 2015, I wrote a short post on how I’ve been doing a plank daily after reading a book called Mini Habits. And then I never talked about it again. What happened?
Unfortunately, I only managed to do the plank daily for another month or so, before I stopped.
Fortunately, I stopped because I managed to build a habit around exercising. Since February last year, almost every single week of mine has been more or less as follows:
Monday: Workout
Tuesday: Badminton
Wednesday: Workout
Thursday: Workout
Friday: Rest
Saturday/Sunday: Usually one day would be rest and another would be light workout
How did this happen? How did I progress from doing a short 2 min plank daily, to exercising at least 30 minutes for at least 4 times a week? Looking back, I think the two main things were routine and convenience.
1. Routine
I joined LinkedIn towards the end of February (23 February to be exact), and one of the perks is that we have a gym within the office. Other than the gym, we also have a trainer who is there every day, and he conducts numerous 30-minute sessions daily. I signed up for a couple of lessons, and very soon, I was going at least 3 to 4 times a week. In a way, this routine replaced my daily plank, and I believe it helped me build the exercise habit.
2. Convenience
The gym is located right in the office. In addition, there are shower facilities and even clothes are provided. In other words, I can never use the excuse “I didn’t bring my gym clothes.”
Side note: I consider myself very fortunate to work in a company that understands the importance of employee health and fitness, and perhaps even more interesting and rewarding was that my then-manager not only supports it, he even joins me in some of the sessions. We also had weekly runs to boot :)!
Once the habit is in place, the routine portion takes a backseat (since the habit is already formed). Today, I still go to the office gym almost every weekday, but sometimes I’d be doing my own exercises instead of taking part in the training sessions. In a way, having a scheduled session no longer drives me to workout. If there’s no scheduled session, or if I can’t make it for the scheduled sessions, I set some time aside on my own to exercise.
Convenience is always a good thing. However, it too takes a backseat once the habit is formed. Even when I’m not in the office (on leave, holiday, weekends, etc.), I’d still find the time to head down to the neighbourhood fitness corner or just hit the track for a quick run.
This lesson has affected many other areas of my life too. Whenever I want to learn a new skill or form a new good habit (for some reason bad habits form effortlessly :P), I’d make sure to have some form of routine and convenience to it. Recently I wanted to learn to be more mindful. I’ve previously embarked on this journey before, and never really succeeded with it. This time round, I started by making sure that I had a routine to it, and also tried to make it as convenient as possible.
1. Routine
A simple rule I have is to meditate when I wake up, before I leave for the office. If I can’t make it, then I’d do it before I sleep. One of the apps, Buddhify, has specific guides for when you’re doing something, such as travelling, eating, walking in the city, etc. Sometimes I use them, especially when I’m waiting for the bus.
2. Convenience
There are a lot of apps to guide you on this. Granted, some of the apps may not be good, and there’re many folks who feel that meditation should ultimately be about yourself (and not guided). With that said, guided meditations helped me a lot more than unguided ones (probably because I’m a newbie). For the apps, I did a lot of searching and found Headspace, Calm and Buddhify to stand out the most, among others. There’re also paid and free options, and there’re many people who are against “paid meditation”, but that’s another topic for another day.
So there you have it. I felt somewhat guilty and obligated to at least write an update on it, even though I don’t exactly have a lot of readers :P. Also, I really recommend reading Mini Habits if you’re interested in forming good habits. I wrote a post about it here.
Removed the newsletter subscription at the top, as well as the popup since it’s quite distracting. Also updated the theme I’m using, should fix some of the loading issues this blog has from time to time.
So glad that I finally finished writing about Bandung. There’re still a couple of trips on my backlog:
Hong Kong 2013 - Memorable trip, probably the most memorable. First trip I ever did with Sheryl, and also the trip where we got together :).
Ho Chi Minh 2014 - Trip with my mum and Sheryl.
Gold Coast 2015 - Trip with Sheryl.
There’re also a number of work travels (where I took a day or two additional/off) but I’m not sure if I’ll write about them.
One of the biggest reasons why I write is because I’ve found a lot of blogs that have helped me tremendously when I am planning my own trips, and I hope to pass that favour on. In addition, it’s also a good way to remember what actually took place. As I was writing about Bandung these couple of days, it was actually quite difficult to remember exactly what happened. More importantly, I could not remember the significance of some of the photos initially. Some photos actually have a nice backstory to it, and blogging is perhaps one of the best ways to record them down.
On another note, I think it’s great that many people are grateful for the New Year, but it’d be even better if people could be grateful for just a new day. 2015 will never come again, neither will Jan 3, 2016, or any other day that has passed. We often focus so much on the “big” things, not realizing the life is really about the little moments.
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 5
And just like that, 4 days pass us by in Bandung, and it’s Day 5 - time for us to return to Singapore. I don’t really remember what happened on this day, except that we went to Warung Suluh again for lunch :P. The food there is really awesome!
And the second thing I remember is that we then headed straight to the Bandung airport, and once we had checked in and found a place to sit and rest, Sheryl started working :(.
Oh well :P.
Overall, I must say that Bandung is a lovely place for food and sightseeing. The food is just amazing, although a large part of that is probably due to Ang Ga being a super awesome guide who happens to be a foodie. Kawah Putih is amazing and till date I think it’s one of the most beautiful sights I’ve had the fortune to experience! The other places like the Floating Market are very relaxing, and very enjoyable. The weather is very lovely too, although it was somewhat hot when we visited, but evenings can be quite chilly. All in all, we really enjoyed Bandung!
Other parts in this series:
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 1
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 2
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 3
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 4
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 4
This was the day that we were heading to Kawah Putih! It’s also one of the main reasons why we wanted to visit Bandung, so we’re very excited! The drive to Kawah Putih was long, if I remember correctly it was around 4 hours. We left around 8am or 9am and arrived only past noon.
Upon arriving at the place where we then had to take a separate bus to get to Kawah Putih, Ang Ga brought us to a strawberry stall (probably his friend, haha).
We were spoilt for choice! Nonetheless, we agreed that we’d return to the stall after our visit to Kawah Putih. Since the next bus was still 30 min (or maybe more) away, we had a quick lunch first.
Soon, it was time to board the bus.
After a bumpy ride, we arrived at Kawah Putih. It’s very hard to describe the place, plus I’m not exactly the best person with words, but it’s very, very beautiful. It almost looks like it’s from another world. (Our) photos don’t really do it a lot of justice, I think it’s one of those places where you need to experience in person in order to fully absorb the wonder of nature standing before you. We also took a lot of photos :P.
Perhaps one of the more memorable things we did was to engage one of the local photographers to help us with some shots. There’re actually a lot of photographers there doing that, and I think they charge something like 20,000 IDR per piece that you want (to print out). It’s kind of touristy, but one thing I’ve learnt from all my travels - sometimes the touristy stuff can be fun and worth it :).
Anyway, here are some of the shots!
We’re not Star Wars’ fans by any measure, Sheryl actually bought the t-shirts from Bangkok just because they were cute. Nonetheless, I love the fact that we were wearing matching t-shirts for an unplanned photo shoot :P. Also, we managed to get the soft copy (as well as the print-out) because for whatever reason, I was carrying Sheryl’s laptop at that time! We then went back to the strawberry stall and bought a lot of strawberry goodies :P.
Next, Ang Ga took us to this restaurant for some traditional food. Very delicious, as always! Bandung is really full of amazing food.
We then headed to the massage place again :P. After that, we returned to the hotel to put all the stuff we’ve bought down, had a free beer (courtesy of the hotel), and then headed to Paris van Java, the huge shopping complex just opposite the hotel for more food.
Many of the places were closed or closing by then, but we managed to find A&W still open :P! Super excited as A&W is one of my favourite places to eat as a kid, but it’s no longer available in Singapore :(.
After A&W, it was time to return to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Along the way, we saw "BMC". "BMC" is a nickname I gave to Sheryl and it stands for "Bad Mood Chubs". Chubs is also a nickname and sometimes Sheryl turns into BMC :P. Hahaha.
I can't remember if it was this night that we used the facial masks that Sheryl bought... But here's the photo anyway :P.
And just like that, we've reached the last night of our Bandung trip :(!
Other parts in this series:
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 1
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 2
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 3
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 5
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 3
Time really flies when you’re travelling. Before we know it, we’re already on Day 3 of our Bandung trip! This was a relatively relaxed day, with Trans Studio (indoor theme park) and some shopping.
The day started off rather amusingly, when we spotted this bike helmet:
We soon arrived at Trans Studio! We started with some light, fun rides, and some photos here and there.
We then followed a random group into what was a haunted house/ride. I remember it being very scary, unfortunately we didn’t take any photos of the inside.
We then went to the aquarium area within Trans Studio...
There was also a section showing how a tornado (or was it typhoon) is formed...
Next, we went for a somewhat interesting guided go-kart ride! Basically you drive the go-kart, but the go-kart itself is “fitted” onto the track.
And then we went for the crazier rides!
There was also a very nice river ride that was quite thrilling, but again, no photos of it :(. However, we have photos of us drying ourselves after that. Haha.
Next, we went for this ride:
We also tried the Super Heroes 4D show, but that wasn’t really good. Before we left, we went for the Yamaha Rollercoaster, which was super thrilling. We also managed to take one photo with a person dressed up as Elvis. Haha.
Below is the rollercoaster we took, very fun!
Overall, I'd recommend Trans Studio if you're heading to Bandung. The rides are quite fun, and a few of them were actually quite thrilling. We had a good time there!
After Trans Studio, Ang Ga took us to a really relaxing and windy place called D’Pakar. It’s a nice outdoor cafe/restaurant at the top of the hills. Very, very relaxing.
After D’Pakar, Ang Ga took us for some shopping. Didn’t really buy much or take much photos.
Sheryl didn’t buy the black dress as it didn’t fit very well and it was very costly. Nonetheless, I think she looks awesome in it <3.
After the shopping, we went to Warung Suluh (finally)! The ambience there has a nice old-school feel to it, and the food is excellent.
As mentioned, this was one of our more relaxing days. If I remember correctly, we headed back to the hotel after this. Remember the masks that Sheryl brought earlier? We used the eye mask :P.
And that’s Day 3!
Other parts in this series:
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 1
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 2
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 4
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 5
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 2
We woke up quite early on Day 2, I believe it was around 7am or 7.30am. The day started with another gift from Sheryl!
I must say I’m a very lucky man :P. We then went for the hotel’s breakfast.
Very nice noodles at the hotel! We’re now all set and ready for our adventure :)!
Our first stop: Tangkuban Perahu. Lots of pictures ahead!
We also headed to the nearby shops, somewhat touristy but we had fun and still ended up buying some gifts and an angklung anyway. Sheryl also played the angklung, as you can see below:
After this, we went to a strawberry farm because Sheryl wanted to pick some strawberries. Unfortunately, it seems that we were too late, many of the strawberries were already picked :(.
Oh well :(. At least we had a strawberry juice as part of the entrance fee, haha :). Ang Ga then took us to a place called De’Ranch, where there were lots of horses. Sheryl was allowed to horse ride since she learnt before. I just sat on the horse and someone pulled me like a little kid. I remember Sheryl had a really good guide who helped her take lots of awesome photos too, while my guide just took the horse for one round and didn’t talk to me :(.
Ang Ga then brought us to the Floating Market. We had the following wristbands made while at the strawberry farm earlier.
We soon arrived at the Floating Market! Lots of food and nice greenery at this place.
And the food...
And the animals...
After this, I don’t remember if we went for a massage first, or if we went for dinner first. I should make it a habit to blog as soon as I can after a trip.
Anyway, here are the dinner photos :P.
And Sheryl’s extremely happy face after the massage!
And when we headed back. Sheryl surprised me yet again, more gifts!
And eye and face masks for us!
If I remember correctly, we were too tired to use them :P. That about sums up Day 2!
Other parts in this series:
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 1
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 3
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 4
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 5
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 1
Bandung is a place I’ve been wanting to go for the past few years but never got around to doing it. Primarily, the idea of being in a relatively cool city in Southeast Asia with a mix of good food, shopping and outdoors sounded awesome, so Bandung has consistently stayed on the list and I always knew that I will eventually go. Well, Sheryl and I went to Bandung back in September 2015! We also celebrated my birthday and our 2nd year anniversary during this trip :).
Before the trip, Sheryl came by my place (as always) so we could consolidate and re-pack some of our stuff if needed. And I received my first birthday present at the same time :P.
So close to 30 :(! Anyway, we soon headed to Changi Airport! Lots of random fun photos taken at the airport...
And then we got onto the flight to Bandung! Upon arriving, we met our guide, Ang Ga. He wanted to take us to Warung Suluh for dinner, but unfortunately it was closed (we were able to go there eventually over the next couple of days). He took us to GiggleBox instead. The food there was awesome and affordable!
That’s Ang Ga :)! GiggleBox itself has a very nice decor too.
After the sumptious dinner, we headed to the de JAVA Hotel for an early night. It’s a good hotel for the price!
And the night ends, or so I thought! Turns out, Sheryl had prepared another present for me!
And that’s really all for Day 1 :)!
Other parts in this series:
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 2
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 3
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 4
Travel Retrospect: Bandung | September 8 to 12, 2015 | Day 5
Book Recommendation: So Good They Can't Ignore You
In this eye-opening account, Cal Newport debunks the long-held belief that "follow your passion" is good advice. Not only is the cliché flawed-preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work-but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.
This is one of my favourite books for career development.
i’m trying to change myself,
trying to create a new person
that you haven’t touched.
new style,
new personality,
new favorite color,
new friends.
but the memories follow me everywhere.
i can’t change myself
when you’re always with me.
“Listen,” he says, “I love you, I really do.”
“I know I can be a disappointment and I am never the easiest person to deal with. I can be an indecisive shit at the most important time in life, and I am more of a stormy afternoon, than a calm evening.”
“But despite every wrong thing that has happened, despite every wrong turn and mistake, despite everything,” he pauses for a while,
“You were the only thing, that was right in my life.”
L.W. // Forgotten Words #56 // Only you but I have to let you go now (via somepiecesofmyheartandsoul)
It's been a while since I last wrote! It's been a busy couple of weeks, and I wanted to share about two significant milestones/events in my life recently.
#1. I'm so happy to say that as of February 27, 2015, I am entirely free of the debt I had as a result of terminating my scholarship about 3 years ago! I wrote a post about that here. Surprisingly, I didn't explode from joy like I thought I would. It was a very calm sort of happiness.
#2. Another significant life event is that I've moved on to LinkedIn as of February 23, 2015! Exciting times ahead!
What better day to write about this than on Friday the 13th itself! About 2 weeks ago I wrote about Mini Habits, a book by Stephen Guise on setting achievable goals and creating habits. Setting goals so small that you can't possibly fail them, so small that you'd actually laugh at yourself for setting them.
In addition to the initial goals, I added one more, which was to do a plank daily for 60 seconds (or 1 minute if that makes it look easier). It was to be a cue-based habit, something I will do once I wake up or just before I sleep. Is 1 minute a big deal? Not really. But doing it everyday requires discipline.
I decided to also keep improving upon that goal. By the way, this is something that Stephen Guise does not encourage in his book as it will make the small goal increasingly difficult. Nonetheless, I wanted to see if it was possible to improve my plank timing daily, so I decided to +10s on a daily basis. I also took into account that there will be days when I will definitely plank for a shorter timing than the previous days, so the +10s should always apply to the maximum time I have planked till date. The minimum time remains at 60 seconds, and I always aim to hold as long as I can, even if I have already met my goal.
For example, if I did 60 seconds on day 1, my goal for day 2 will be 70 seconds. If I then do 80 seconds on day 2, my goal for day 3 will be 90 seconds. However, if I only managed 60 seconds on day 3, my goal for day 4 will still be 90 seconds.
To make things easier, I turned to Excel to chart out this progress:
As you can see, I had a 4-day break, which I am not proud of. I was exercising on each of those days though, but that is not an excuse to skip 60 seconds of plank. On a more positive note, I managed 130 seconds yesterday! If there was someone pushing me I wouldn't have been as proud of it (I think I have done 3 minutes before during training). The key difference here is self-discipline.
Below is a chart of the progress till date:
To make things easier, I have the file on Dropbox, and edit it directly using Excel on my smartphone.
I am interested to see what the chart will look like on the 1st of March, and will probably post another update then.
In case you're interested, I've also uploaded the Excel file here.
Older generations set fires. They would begin to burn with a small smoldering flame and eventually evolve into a roaring blaze as they continued to stoke it. Our generation seems to be setting off fireworks. There is a spectacular display that is quite often beautiful, but unpredictable and ends as quickly as it began. Leaving behind only the memory of the experience.
We are not allowing ourselves the time to actually build a foundation with each other. We are an instant-gratification society and we are, unfortunately, carrying the same attitude into our relationships. We always want the next best phone or the next best tablet and toss aside the obsolete version without a second thought. Sadly, it seems we do this with significant others as well.
A close friend of mine once shared this with me. He had lost some of his personal belongings while travelling, so he phoned his then-girlfriend. The reaction he got was something along the lines of:
Why are you so careless?
Why did you make such a mistake?
Why were you not more aware?
At the same time, he had also informed some of his closer friends, and some of them responded by:
Is there anything I can help you with?
Are you alright?
I have no doubt that everyone was equally concerned for my friend, regardless of what they have said to him. However, at that point in time, being critical was probably unnecessary, and perhaps even detrimental to the current situation. If we all just take some time to think, we'd realize how stupid our reactions are most of the time. Using the same example:
Why are you so careless?
Do you think he had intended to be careless on purpose?
Why did you make such a mistake?
That's why it's called a mistake.
Why were you not more aware?
You get the point by now :).
Many times in life, I've reacted instead of responded. And I regret almost all of the times that I have reacted. Nowadays I try to take a few moments to think before acting. Sometimes there isn't even a need to have any action, because I'd realize that my initial reaction was a very selfish expectation in the first place. Non-action is also an action. "Few moments" is again a very vague term. To put things in more concrete terms, I'd say that it'd be best not to react as long as you feel any bit of anger. I tend to ask myself these questions:
Am I angry?
Am I being selfish?
As long as one of the answers is "yes", I try to remain silent instead. Sometimes being plain honest works the best. Perhaps you can even let the other party know that you're not feeling comfortable enough to discuss matters at the moment. Sometimes the other party ends up reacting, but if you are able to maintain your cool, my experience has taught me that the matter will eventually be resolved in a peaceful manner.
There's been numerous posts written on responding versus reacting, I hope my little addition to the existing posts helps in whatever tiny ways possible.
The above image was taken from Quessity from an article about responding vs reacting as well.
This post has been in draft for way too long, I decided to finish writing it and post it anyway :). #keepwriting
