Become a Bard Challenge Month 1 Summary
What Happened in Month 1
Month 1 of the Become a Bard Challenge spanned from 30 June to 29 July 2024. This first month was rough! Getting into a daily routine required many days of playing around with my morning schedule before leaving for work as well as my late afternoon/early evening schedule after returning from work. I was able to have one “perfect” day (meeting the daily goals for each category) on Day 9. I was hopeful when I accomplished this! I felt sure that it meant I would start seeing success in the BAB Challenge so early on. And then I came down with COVID.
I was completely thrown off of the BAB Challenge for about two and a half weeks. The first week consisted of me struggling through the virus itself. The week and a half afterwards were spent recuperating from the virus. In that first week, I slept throughout the day and night without every feeling rested, sleeping only for spurts of 1 to 2 hours at a time. Breathing was a painful process. I felt so dazed and confused most of the time. I experienced terrible muscle pain and cold sweats. And I completely lost my senses of taste and smell. This will always be the strangest COVID symptom to me.
With colds and flus in the past, I would have dulled senses of taste and smell, but I could still taste or smell things to a degree. But this bout of COVID (which was my fourth time experiencing the virus) resulted in me losing 100% of my senses of taste and smell! I could sense the temperature and textures of whatever I ate or drank, but I could taste absolutely nothing. I discovered that foods I knew were supposed to be spicy or sweet created specific physical sensations when I ate them. I wonder why that is! I am going to look into that at some point for a Science in a Nutshell inquiry. I was so happy when I could taste and smell again!
Motivation was nearly impossible to find after recovering from COVID. It felt like I was starting all over again, which was frustrating. I was able to establish a fairly good routine within the final 8 days of the month, but I did have any “perfect” days after recovering from COVID.
Month 1 Final Score: 392/600
As I outlined in last month’s BAB Challenge post, I would consider a month’s effort to be successful if I earned 480 out of 600 possible points—a grade of 80%—over the course of 30 days. Points are earned every day by completing tasks across 6 categories: (1) 5 points for 7 hours of sleep; (2) 4 points for 10 minutes of rigorous exercise; (3) 4 points for 5 minutes of music practice; (4) 3 points for 10 minutes of language study; (5) 2 points for 10 minutes of reading; and (6) 2 points for 20 minutes of creative writing. By the end of the 30 days, I could earn a total of 150 points for the sleep category, 120 points for rigorous exercise, 90 points for music practice, 90 points for language study, 60 points for reading, and 60 points for creative writing. The points from all categories are added to earn up to 600 points every month.
My final score at the end of my first month of the BAB Challenge was 392 points, or 65%. A break down of each category is provided below.
Sleep: 125/150 (~83%)
I was able to get 7 hours of sleep for 25 out of the 30 days. Before conceptualizing the BAB Challenge, I determined that 7 hours is the amount of time my body needs to feel fully rested by going to bed early and allowing myself to wake up naturally without an alarm. After “catching up” on sleep, I noticed that I would wake up feeling fully rested after receiving 7 hours of sleep. Only the hours I spent sleeping at night counted towards this category. Naps were not taken into consideration.
Rigorous Exercise: 88/120 (~73%)
I completed 10 minutes of rigorous exercise for 22 of the 30 days. Physical activities that counted towards the rigorous exercise category included working out at the gym, working out or doing yoga exercises at home, and taking extra long walks with my dog.
Music Practice: 56/120 (~47%)
I completed 5 minutes of music practice for 14 of the 30 days. Types of music practice I counted were sheet music reading exercises as well as practicing with the instrument itself.
Language Study: 15/90 (~17%)
I completed 10 minutes of language study for 5 of the 30 days. Activities I included as language study were exercises on language learning apps, translating songs from other languages into English, and writing journal entries in the language I was studying.
Reading: 54/60 (90%)
The first month of the BAB Challenge was great for the Reading category! I earned 54 out of a total possible 60 points. I was able to read or listen to audiobooks for 27 of the 30 days, resulting in me finishing eight titles. In the order I finished them, my reading list of July 2024 includes: (1) Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein; (2) How to ADHD by Jessica McCabe; (3) Homeland by R.A. Salvatore; (4) The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid; (5) Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewel; (6) Yellowface by R.F. Kuang; (7) Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree; and (8) What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher.
Of these titles, I listened to audiobooks of Farmer in the Sky, Homeland, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Then She Was Gone, Legends and Lattes, and What Moves the Dead. I both listened to the audiobook and read the hardcover of How to ADHD. And I read a physical copy of Yellowface.
I first read Homeland almost 20 years ago! I became obsessed with the fantasy genre after seeing Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films. I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy between The Two Towers’ release on VHS and The Return of the King’s release in theatres. R.A. Salvatore’s Homeland was my “gateway” into the worlds of Forgotten Realms and Dungeons & Dragons, which are great influences on the Become a Bard Challenge.
Check out my book reviews for How to ADHD, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Then She Was Gone, Yellowface, Legends & Lattes, and What Moves the Dead.
Creative Writing: 54/60 (90%)
The Creative Writing category was another great success this past month! I earned 54 out of a total possible 60 points. Types of writing that were counted in this category were my work on my own creative writing projects as well as writing for this blog. Journal entries did not count.
By the end of Month 1, I did not earn the minimum 480 points needed to “level up.” I will not increase the difficulty for any category going into Month 2.
What to do Differently Next Month
I was reminded about an interesting and annoying fact about myself as I went through the first month of the BAB Challenge: I am terrible at remembering to hydrate! Taking this into consideration I am adding a new category to encourage myself to drink more water. I do not want to change the monthly goal of 480 out of 600 total possible points. For this reason, I am rearranging the daily point value of each category. The new daily point values for each category are listed below.
Sleep = 4 points
Drink Water = 4 points
Rigorous Exercise = 4 points
Music = 2 points
Language = 2 points
Reading = 2 points
Writing = 2 points
Expectations for Month 2
I did not earn the minimum 480 out of 600 points in the first month of the BAB challenge. The daily goals for each category, which are listed below, will remain the same going in to Month 2. The daily goal for the new Drink Water category is set to 20 oz because that is the size of my smallest insulated water bottle.
Sleep: 7 hours
Drink Water: 20 oz
Rigorous Exercise: 10 minutes
Music: 10 minutes
Language: 10 minutes
Reading: 30 minutes
Writing: 30 minutes
Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading the Month 1 Summary of the BAB Challenge!
Post Date: 24 August 2024
