The Diary Game (16-05-2024) • Spending Time Indoors Improving on My Already Existing Skills

It is my dream that someday I will be a master of my crafts. All these are possible and many more if I make an effort to improve every day.

Today, I woke up in the very early hours of the morning with this thought in my mind. The night before, I had sketched out four major tasks I wished to complete. They included:

• Making a post on Steemit
• Designing a unique cover design
• Reading some saved articles online
• Playing Scrabble

By 12:42 AM, I got up to commence my day. I function best by this time of the day when the world is silent. The first thing I did was to design the cover page with my favourite design software, Canva. The main idea was to make a minimalist design. But somewhere along the line, I decided to test out the animation features while using a monochromatic palette. Everything was going well until it was time to download the design and I discovered that my design was not saved due to network fluctuation. Upset, I switched to a new network and began the design from scratch again. Took me 2 hrs to finish this but I still love the result.

Cover page for this post.

While the birds were still asleep and the chill breeze blew quietly, I pulled out my lamp and foolscap to write my first post for the week. The glow from the lamp was so faint so I decided to type directly on my notepad instead. I dozed off while typing. Woke up to see that I had deleted a tiny section of what I typed earlier while sleeping. What replaced it was the gibberish my fingers mistakenly typed, probably when it was sliding. Again, I made the necessary edits. Viola, my post was ready. I went ahead to make another design. Found this quote while downloading the second design and I'm sharing it here because I hope it would be beneficial to someone reading this diary.

The quote

Waking up very early to work comes with its side effect. I felt so sleepy and weak to do anything. Without eating breakfast or carrying out my morning rituals, I hit my bed again to get proper rest. Regained consciousness when the clock struck somewhere between 12-1 PM. I had to make brunch from a leftover vegetable soup in the refrigerator.

FYI: None of these terrestrial obstructions were spared by the hungry stomach around me.

While eating, I listened to my screen reader as it read out the texts in the online saved pages. I had only finished a paragraph when I got a call from my friend to help her edit a work she would be submitting in a couple of hours. It's not my fault that I'm an English graduate and have to receive impromptu calls like this. Nonetheless, I updated the document and left her a message when it was ready.

I needed to give my brain cells a break from serious stuff. So I pulled out my Scrabble board to mindlessly play a word game. Spent the next 2 hours watching reels on Instagram after that. On an ordinary day, I would have felt guilty for indulging in such pleasure. But not today, especially when I've been able to work on my design, editing, writing and anagramming skills. Those moments of waste served more like a reward for the tiny bit of effort I made today. Looking forward to completing better tasks tomorrow.

_{Written by @ukpono on 16 May 2024.}