It feels like 2024 just began, yet May is already upon us. We’ve transitioned from warm weather to something resembling summer, with memories of winter fading fast.
“April 2024 Challenge”
For a while, I lived without setting monthly challenges or goals, but starting last month, I’ve been setting monthly challenges.
In April, the goal was to walk more than 10,000 steps daily and write or publish at least 4 pieces every day, which I can say I successfully achieved.
While I didn’t reach 10,000 steps every day, achieving it daily throughout the month wasn’t easy. Taking a day off each week was necessary. Nonetheless, as of April 28th, I achieved a total of 20 days with over 10,000 steps. Compared to March, where I achieved only 8 days, this is a significant improvement.
The goal of writing or publishing at least 4 pieces daily was also exceeded. I managed to allocate time after work each day to write or upload content, resulting in an average of over 4 pieces daily. This allowed me to write many pieces in the “book review” category, reaching a total of 200 pieces.
Considering that I achieved 100 book reviews back in 2013, surpassing the 200 mark nearly a decade later is meaningful progress.
“Additional Achievements Beyond the Challenge Goals”
Though not specifically set as challenge goals, there were additional achievements. Previously, I didn’t focus much on studying English as I used it daily at work. However, now that I no longer use English daily for work, I felt my English proficiency wasn’t as smooth as before. Facing a situation where I need to take English exams like TOEFL again, I realized the importance of restoring my English proficiency to a comfortable level before focusing on academic studies.
So, I started memorizing English words little by little every day and began attending English conversation groups twice a week. I’ve been consistently attending these groups since the second week of April.
Also, I’ve been steadily memorizing English words every day and focusing more on exposing myself to English in daily life. To summarize what I’m doing to improve my English skills:
- Memorizing English words through vocabulary apps.
- Practicing speaking English through Chat GPT.
- Attending English conversation groups twice a week.
“May 2024 Challenge Goals”
With May here, it’s time to set new challenge goals. As the weather gets warmer, it’s a good time for outdoor activities. However, I also need to focus on restoring my English proficiency and ultimately passing English exams. Additionally, I need to find alternative revenue streams to make up for the declining income from my Naver blog.
It’s also a critical time to start exercising more seriously before my health deteriorates further. With so much to do, it’s not easy to determine priorities. Therefore, I’m setting the following light challenge goals for May and will adjust priorities as needed:
- Walk more than 10,000 steps on weekdays.
- English Study
- Daily: Memorize over 800 English words (flashcard memorization).
- Tues/Thurs: Consistently attend English conversation groups.
- Mon/Wed/Fri: Practice speaking English for 30 minutes each day using Chat GPT.
- Naver Blog: Schedule posts for the next three months (up to 100 posts).
“Weekdays: Walk More Than 10,000 Steps Daily”
I’ll continue the April challenge of walking more than 10,000 steps daily during weekdays. However, I’ll exclude weekends to allow for rest. I’m considering returning to the gym to do strength training as my muscle mass has decreased noticeably compared to before. Finding the right timing to start again is crucial, but for now, establishing a habit of consistent walking without overdoing it seems best.
“English Study: Consistency is Key”
For English study, my goal is to consistently study every day. While I’ll continue memorizing English words daily, I won’t focus on exams for now. Instead, I aim to gradually restore my ability to use English comfortably and proficiently, similar to before. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’ll attend offline English conversation groups, and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I’ll practice speaking using applications like Chat GPT. Vocabulary seems to be the most significant difference from before. Since I haven’t studied vocabulary for a while, I feel I’ve forgotten even the words I used to know well. Therefore, I think it’s essential to quickly re-memorize vocabulary as before.
“Regular Blog Posting on Naver”
For a while, I’ve been focusing on WordPress and haven’t posted on Naver. Since Tistory started displaying its ads, I stopped posting on it, resulting in a significant decrease in ad revenue. While WordPress seemed to be generating some revenue after a few years of operation, the decrease in search traffic indicates the need to grow the Naver blog again to reduce costs and increase revenue.
As time goes on, there’s more to do, but to prevent the situation from worsening, I need to diligently set and pursue goals every day. So, for now, I’ve set the May goals as above and will try to achieve them.