Checking in for February for my "Designing a Well-Lived Life" blogging. This is about making small changes during the year to make larger changes.

• Administrative focus: I managed to migrate my Linode instances over to updated versions of Ubuntu, and have their configuration be in Ansible. This is a huge win for me, as it's been something that I've wanted for a few years, but haven't been able to make happen. Also am working on my taxes and am working on keeping the day-to-day things functioning as best I can.

• Writing more: I did some journaling, and have been writing some blog posts for the Django challenge. I'm hoping in the coming month to do more checking in and more long-form writing on the blog and other medium, but for now I'm not as focused as I could be on this. I have been working on writing more of The Mediocre Programmer, but the additions that I've been making have been slower that I would like. It's a little frustrating, but I keep plugging away at it. I think the more I put the not great ideas out the more they'll unhook the better ideas that I want to see on the page.

• Design more: Looking to pick this up more in March. Still focused on the writing piece.

• Programming more: I've been making a point to read through the Django books and am starting to find the hunger in learning more. I submitted a talk for Penguicon that (if accepted) will require more attention on programming. This makes me happy (and a little nervous).

• Getting out of debt: I've been reading the "You Need a Budget" book, which has helped me reconnect with our financial priorities in the coming months. That has given me a shift in my spending habits. If nothing else it's helped me recognize that much like the Konmari method it's not about choosing what not to spend money on; it's about choosing where the dollars go. It just happens that removing the debt is where I'm putting my focus on.

• Physical Health: I did more stationary bike riding this month as part of the Zen Habits Mindful Fitness challenge. Also have been moving a lot more in the past few weeks.

• Mindfulness: Focused more on my mindfulness during my bike riding. I worked on being present with the discomfort of exercise (something that I've always wanted to get away from) and allowed myself to be present throughout. Also been practicing "holding the pose" as challenges come up.

• Deeper work: Haven't focused as much in this area, but have been practicing with being more mindful during my work and not letting myself get distracted. It's been challenging as I tend to want to run to distractions when things get hard. I'll suddenly think of checking to see if someone liked some witty thing that I said online, or see if anyone responded to a thread I'm watching. I've been recognizing that a lot of this doesn't matter, and that I'm OK with taking more infrequent dips into the media that I consume (social or otherwise). Put more simply, I'd rather wait for the long-form newspaper edition than instant hits of a 24 hour news cycle.