My Summer (August) Plan: Failed

At the end of the July, I made a post about what I wanted to accomplish during the rest of summer vacation. And I miserably failed.

Here's the details (normal font=goal, bold=reality):

• Read at least 12 novels (read 10)
• Finish watching all the videos of the computer methodology course and complete all the assignments (watched 9 out of 24 lectures, did 2/6 assignments)
• Finish watching all the videos of the game theory course (watched 8/24 lectures)
• Pre-read my grade 11 and grade 12 math text books (finished my grade 11 text book, and half of my grade 12 text-book)
• Study at least 20 vocabularies per day (studied about 20... in total)
• Read the book Algorithms (read the first chapter and then it was due)
• Practice for the seniors computers contest (did one practice question)
• Practice for the various math contests (did not practice)
• Gain some general knowledge about Western history (gained none)

As you can see, I accomplished none of these goals...

Why I failed:
1. Some of these goals were too ambitious. For example, to watch all the lectures of the computer methodology course and do all the assignments within such a short time, about 1.5 hours would be required per day.  And that's only if I managed to get onto the computer every day....

2. Collectively, the goals were to ambitious. For example, even if I could spend 1.5 hours on the computer methodology course everyday, I couldn't have done all the other things. Reading 12 books would require at least one hour per day; studying the vocabularies would require 1-2 hours per day; watching the game theory lectures would require half an hour per day; and practising for the contests would require at least one to two hours for each session.

3. I wasted too much time. I simply spent too much time on the computer, wasting at least two hours per day.

4. I had other things to do (which I hadn't considered when I made my plan). For example, for almost four days in a row, I was in another city, unable to do anything described in the list. Also, on many afternoons I went out with my family to do various things, and during those afternoons I would be unable to accomplish anything described in the list.

Things to Improve on in the Future:
1. Make more realistic plans. That is, know my situation better and make plans that would be reasonable given the situation.

2. Waste less time. I really have to spend less time on the computer.

3. Refer to the plan, often! I only looked at the plan twice during the last month, and perhaps as a result I didn't really make a huge effort to follow the plan. However, if I look at my plan more often, then maybe I will  try harder to follow it.

4. Don't procrastinate.

(I will probably make another plan tomorrow, or the day after that)