My Smoking Streak Broke on the Trip, the Gym Was Out With an Injury — Yet Work Was the Best It's Been [Goal Progress 5/30-6/5]

This week I went on a trip.

To get to the point: my health was a mess, but work, money, and my mental state were all firing on all cylinders — a strangely lopsided week.

This is one of those "check in with myself on whether I'm actually doing the things" posts. I'll write it all honestly, including where things broke.

Health: Between the trip and an injury, the gym was fully off

I couldn't make it to the gym

Honestly: I didn't make it to the gym this week.

Two reasons. One, I was traveling. And two — the annoying one — it seems one of the bones on the back of my hand is slightly out of place.

I've got a minor injury and I'm at the "I need to get an MRI first" stage. I can't even do push-ups. Before any talk of exercise, it's the hospital first.

It's true I didn't go, but this isn't slacking — it's recovery. Probably.

But the trip refreshed me like crazy

Still, it's not all bad news.

Thanks to the trip, I got seriously refreshed. Normally I'm glued to my desk, and this week that just completely went away. The effect was bigger than I imagined — head and body both feel clear.

There's the minus of "couldn't exercise," but there's definitely the plus of "got to rest properly." On balance, my health this week was a Good.

The 6 a.m. wake-up held up, even on the trip

My sleep rhythm is really good.

What surprised me is that my rhythm didn't fall apart even while traveling. I basically woke up at 6 a.m. and was asleep by 10 or 11. You'd expect to stay up late on a trip, so even I found it unexpected. Waking up fresh really does feel great.

Quitting smoking broke down once, on the trip

I'll be honest here. The no-smoking thing — I slipped on the trip.

Normally I get by with a vape, but in the country I visited it was banned. With my escape route cut off, I bought actual cigarettes on the spot and went through about one pack over five days.

If I'm making excuses, blame the environment. If I'm not defending myself, it's weakness of will. Probably both.

That said, I refuse to think "it's all ruined now." Back in daily life, I just have to quit again. When it breaks, rebuild it. That's the loop.

Work: I had AI implement 100 things in a day — and made myself unnecessary

I didn't work full-on this week. Even so, I really pushed on AI use and automation.

I had AI implement around 100 things in a single day

Right before the trip, there was a project under pressure. Tasks were piled high.

So I fired tasks into Notion in bulk and basically had AI just blast through the implementation. The result: in one day, maybe around 100 implementations went through. Quality was about 70%, but since it was pre-release, the policy was to merge aggressively.

The flow looked like this:

Check in the staging environment
Get testers and the PM to look early
Have them pick up the small diffs, feedback, and bugs
Have AI fix it all again in one go, merge, resolve
Sort out the tasks that must be done by hand, and grind those by hand

And I wasn't involved at all

The kicker: the project under pressure was knocked out swiftly by my excellent team members. I wasn't involved at all. That's amazing too.

Building the AI implementation workflow was genuinely worthwhile. On the AI/automation side, I also obsessed over the audio design — hooking up with ElevenLabs and so on. That looks usable going forward too.

Money: Took profit again, the paid article is going well. Inching upward

Took profit on one more position

Investments are basically left alone. I didn't touch them this week either. Leaving them alone gives better results, so not touching them is itself the right answer.

In the middle of that, I took profit on one more position. Against this year's goal, I'm still at about 60%. So from here it's the phase of reinvesting and building the portfolio back up. Prep for moving abroad hasn't progressed, but the asset side is steadily moving.

The paid article is growing into something good

The content I'm planning to make into a paid article is coming along well too. It's somehow turning into something really interesting.

Profit-taking, the paid article — these stack up, and on paper my assets are growing little by little. Nothing flashy, but a good trend.

On the trip, I splurged without penny-pinching

The trip cost a fair amount.

But for what I spent, I think I splurged without being stingy. If you weirdly tighten up at moments like this, you regret it later. When it's time to spend, spend. This is fine.

Other: Duolingo at 155 days, and English actually paid off on the ground

English study didn't stop, even on the trip

English study kept going even while traveling. My Duolingo is now at a 155-day streak. Once it goes this long, it's basically a tooth-brushing-level habit.

Maybe thanks to that, with all the chances to use English abroad this time, it really helped. The steady work pays off on the ground. That's honestly nice.

From here I want to shift toward conversation-focused study, while boldly taking on the AI side too.

The best part was family time

And the best thing this week was getting solid family time on the overseas trip.

Time like this matters precisely because it's only once in a while. I got proper time with my kid too, and it was genuinely great.

I built up the energy to think, "All right, back to pushing hard at work from here." A really good stretch of time.

In closing: I've recharged. All that's left is to do it

This week, with the trip and the hand injury, was a different rhythm from usual.

Skipped the gym, but rested properly
Early rising held up even while traveling
Quitting smoking broke once. I'll reset it
Work: the AI workflow is paying off, things run even without me
Money: profit-taking and the paid article are inching forward
English: 155 days, paid off on the ground
Recharged with family time

Next week, first I'll go get an MRI. Fix the wrist, bring back the gym habit. Plus, finish the paid article. And keep grinding on early to bed and early to rise, no smoking, English, and AI.

I've recharged. All that's left is to do it.