Looking for advice/thoughts on setting up ClickUp to manage both work projects and "life admin." I'm using the Personal Workspace Layout and have no collaborators.
I know that it's helpful to start as simply as possible and add complexity as it becomes actually needed. The thing is, I'm importing a few projects already underway (plus a lot of small tasks of varying value), and want to avoid defaulting to my familiar old systems without assessing whether they're actually working for me, or are a good fit for ClickUp.
Assess my setup and give me feedback on where to go from here! I've included a ton of detail on my current setup below. If it's TL;DR, my more general question is: Tell me how you set up ClickUp to handle both work and life admin projects. How are you using categories, status, priorities, tags, and task types? I'm having trouble figuring out how to use them, especially since there seems to be a lot of potential overlap between them. Or, what advice do you have for migrating to ClickUp with a couple complex projects already underway, plus a lot of small tasks?
For context, here's how I have ClickUp set up right now. It's pretty simple but I'm still not clear whether it's the right approach (and FYI, I'm not wedded to it at all), plus there are still lots of components that don't neatly fit anywhere in my current setup:

• I have ClickUp divided into three spaces: Active Projects (multi-step projects with clear outcomes and/or deliverables), Areas of Focus (task lists divided up by a broader work or life "area"), plus a space I'm ignoring where archived projects and messy old things live..
  • Under Active Projects, I have folders for each class I'll be teaching (and because it's summer, right now they're split into prep work for upcoming classes, and wrap-up for the couple last to-do items left over from the spring).
  • Under Areas of Focus, I tend to keep lists of professional admin and personal life admin tasks that aren't part of a larger project (like paying bills or rent.

Next, there are a few different types of things I'm trying to plan and keep track of. As mentioned, I'm not really sure how I should be thinking about them through the framework of categories, status, priorities, tags, and task types.

• Active projects with a specific, concrete outcome. Mostly these projects are longer-term things, sometimes with several potential paths they could take depending on results of earlier tasks, but other times they're just 1-2wk projects that have lots of little steps I need to keep track of. Some real-life examples on my list right now:
  1. Work: Set up a class I'll be teaching in the fall. I need to do a bunch of prep work for this, some of which is pretty clear (set up course homepage and revise syllabus to include XYZ things; revise grade breakdown using these rules, & implement breakdown in Canvas), and other of which is fairly inchoate (e.g. review these five texts and decide which to teach; find an open-source subject-specific text; refine course structure as needed based on the texts I end up using). Then, there are semi-ongoing tasks that will come into play once I'm actually teaching the class (e.g. prep/review the thing I'll be teaching next week; set up assignments due next week so they're ready to go when the start date rolls around; grade assignments X, Y, Z; a weekly review of the syllabus & update deadlines as needed). Then wrap-up tasks that happen pretty routinely at the end of the semester, and one-off "respond to X's grade query email" type tasks. (Many of these things could be part of a template, but I don't need to cross that bridge yet.) How to organize the giant project of "put together, teach, and wrap up X class"? What's the relationship between the big project full of kinda sequential steps and the small "Answer X email" tasks that I mostly put into a project manager so I don't forget about them?
  2. Work: Various small professional development projects that in the past I've thought of as a series of sequential tasks, e.g. "Apply for X grant" (in this case, small individual artist grants for $1k-$20k, not big, collaboratively-written NSF grants). Under "Apply..." is a list of five different pieces I need to put together, one or two of which will need multiple rounds of refinement, while the rest will be relatively quick and easy. This type of project usually comes together in a couple weeks or less, and typically I'll have several active at once. (I usually have a dozen others on my radar at any given moment, but only decide to apply for 1-2 at any time. I keep up with these deadlines via a Google Sheet and a sticky note on my Mac desktop, and in the past only brought them into a project manager once I'd committed to a specific deadline-driven thing, or if I needed a reminder to check on one that has a deadline that varies annually.)
  3. Personal: Research summer travel possibilities, map out a timeline that fits scheduling constraints and mode of travel (one subtask that's a small project in and of itself: research buying a fiberglass camper shell for truck, & if that makes sense to do we'll drive, otherwise we'll fly or take the train). This is still in the research stage, so there aren't many actual tasks yet, but will be in a month or so.
  4. Avocational: Facilitate a large, slow-moving bylaws revision project for an organization I'm involved with. I'm at the beginning stages of this one, but have a pretty good idea of the different stages of this project and what the path to completion will look like. It'll be a big project once it gets off the ground, but for now it's just in the "assembling ideas" stage.
• Ongoing & one-off tasks with varying priority levels (e.g. things I need to do regularly vs. things I'd like to do regularly but don't necessarily get to).
  • Necessary Tasks like paying rent and bills, which are typically pretty straightforward and non-negotiable. Also things like updating the finances spreadsheet I share with my partner, which ideally happens weekly but which realistically I don't get around to more than once a month if that.
  • One-Off Tasks that start cropping up, especially once the semester is underway (e.g. "Answer X email"). Some of these are essential, others don't need to happen (but should for a smoother semester), and plenty are totally optional but worth doing if I have the time. When I'm bogged down, I don't want to think about those totally optional tasks at all, but when I'm feeling pretty unencumbered, they're worth tending to.
• Other things I can't figure out how to classify/organize:
  • Backburner tasks & projects, both work-related and life admin. (How to label and filter backburner tasks that I need to do "soon" vs. "eventually" vs. "maybe, someday, who even knows"?)
    • Some of these are important but not yet active (e.g. applying for that aforementioned grant, for instance, which I don't need to actively think about until next spring when the deadline approaches, though I do often start drafting/refining materials in advance, so it's nice to have a clear holding place for those).
    • Others are aspirational (for instance, "Organize the garage" is a backburner task that will turn into a full project once I start working on it & actually identifying specific subtasks, e.g. put specific thing on FB Marketplace, or buy a set of storage bins). I'd like to clearly delineate between this sort of thing; I don't need to see "Organize the garage" unless I'm doing a big review of the backburner items once a month or so and moving a handful into active projects/tasks.
  • Mosquito tasks: These tasks should happen "soon" or "eventually," but they're not urgent and if they end up never being completed at all, that's usually nbd. Realistically I might do them in the next couple weeks, but probably not in the next few days. These kinds of tasks are helpful to keep in ClickUp so they stay on my radar (and one benefit of that is that for a task like "Email so-and-so to ask X question," I'll often end up drafting half an initial email in a comment, then forgetting about it for a few weeks and coming back to find that email already half-drafted). Mosquito tasks include:
    • Reminders (to check on an important or not-so-important upcoming professional deadline that hasn't been posted yet, & to keep doing this until that concrete deadline appears, at which point it turns into an actual task; upcoming birthday reminders; to get a book back from someone who'd borrowed it, etc).
    • Personal CRM, my most frequent mosquito task. I've done fieldwork around the world and consider keeping in touch with friends/colleagues/informants from faraway as part of my professional responsibilities (but not urgent whatsoever), so I like to keep these things on my radar without letting them distract me from my active, necessary tasks & projects.
    • Ideas, possibilities, and other inchoate things that ended up in ClickUp when I migrated from Todoist, some of which are basically just notes-to-self, and other of which are smaller tasks/projects that I may someday pick back up, all of which I feel sentimental about and don't want to get rid of even though I'm not going to sort through them regularly. These pretty clearly fall under "backburner" and "maybe, someday, who even knows." (Should I break the "Not Started" status into "Backburner: eventually" and "Backburner: maybe, someday, who knows" to delineate these?) Feel free to ignore this category!
  • A Morning/Evening Routine that should reset every day, regardless of whether I've checked every item off from the previous day. (This is probably the only sort of task I want to reset like this, and honestly it's pretty low-priority.)

Give me advice on how to organize all these things, please! Or just tell me about your ClickUp setup for work and life admin projects! Or give me advice for migrating to ClickUp with a bunch of tasks and a couple complex projects already underway, rather than starting from complete scratch!

Sorry for the lazy redact

hello, I have wanted this style of game for a while, a good game where tons of people can join in, watch, broadcast, Control. By creating this game you need to be knowledgeable with TV camera systems (spidercams, steadycams, pedastools). I want a game where you can build or join servers with tools huge stages and control them in game, or through art-net (MA2, QLC, ETC) and run them through. And you have certain roles where you could host game shows, TV productions, Recreations, where a producer can switch between peoples views, playing as a Spidercam (wirecam) or a pedastool, steadycam, cranes, etc. you have tons of people, coming in to see someone, something preform. Ive seen it before in roblox, but only the lighting and acting part. I think it would be fun for people to have a community where you can host a game on a stage that you build, assign people roles (LD, Sound, Producer, Cams) and have a full stage production, and an audience. I think this would be a fun game for all as people can train and learn how to operate/how A operation goes on stage/backstage. And an audience to watch that show that you put together. This needs to be a good looking game with good lighting renders and a realistic sound system and building system, not a unreal engine template game. Thank you for reading.

Highlight the following benefits: This is my personal opinion, but you may disagree with me!
Budget Planning: AI analyzes your spending habits much more deeply than you might on your own. This leads to tailored recommendations and insights you wouldn't uncover manually. In addition, it can process massive amounts of financial data, like budget plans, spending analysis, and savings suggestions, in seconds.

On a separate note, I want to mention the fight against impulse buys. AI eliminates emotional spending triggers often associated with human budgeting. It sticks to the data, promoting financial discipline.

"Create a budget template that will work with my income and spending habits. I want something I can easily track and modify." 

Accounting and Tax Compliance: Modern platforms track changes in tax rules and legislation in real-time, alerting you to updates that could affect your life and work. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and potential penalties. If you set up your assistant intelligently, you may even be able to prevent problems in some cases.

And, unlike a real financial advisor, AI platforms are noticeably cheaper and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Explain the key financial ratios and how to calculate them. Provide examples of how to use them to assess my business health." 

Investment Management: AI is increasingly important in trading, as financiers make trades using algorithms. And if the best experts are using it, why shouldn't we? AI platforms are trained on vast amounts of data, allowing us to identify patterns humans might miss. This helps ensure the integrity of financial data and reduces costly errors.

In addition, some platforms can assess risk tolerance, financial goals, and market conditions to generate customized portfolio management recommendations.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Summarize the current economic climate. Highlight key indicators (e.g., inflation, interest rates, GDP) and their potential impact on my investment portfolio." 

These points add to a common conclusion regarding one fundamental advantage: data-driven automation. AI can quickly handle routine and time-consuming tasks, allowing us to make more educated decisions or free up time for more enjoyable activities.

Attention -> This guide is highly opinionated, if you're looking for a post from a perspective from a highly experienced dev then you should probably stop reading and check out other posts. I've been working full-time for over 2 years only but I've been a part of startups in different capacities for the past 4 years, either as an intern or a contractofreelancer. Resources might be outdated but still check them out and decide accordingly, but in my opinion you should read my post since, I fall under these buckets ->

1. NON CS and Tier 2/3/4.. College -> I had 50k+ rank in JEE and was only able to land Civil in a Tier 3 college due to home state quota, later got a circuit branch from branch upgrade.
2. Off Campus Placement -> I had already started freelancing since culture at a company is a very very crucial to me and I loved the freelancing lifestyle this I skipped on campus placements altogether. Also due to freelancing I was making more than what all the companies who were part of our placement drive were offering.
3. Got placed primarily due to my past experience and projects as opposed to my CP ranking -> I asked my HR why was I hired and she mentioned that it was my past experience + projects which caught their attention, of course I went through their standard selection rounds but they still preferred my profile over Tier 1 students with good coding platform ranks due to my past work experience.
4. Consistent earning -> While someone can dismiss my current job as a fluke I've a history of making good money($20K in 6 months from scratch) through freelancing with multiple clients and was able to translate that experience into a job at a startup as well. My PPO comp was 40 base and a very sizeable portion of equity of a very fast growing startup. If we were to do the cringy CTC calculation it was a 1 CR+ job offer.

What makes someone hire a candidate?

I've interviewed over 40+ people and 4 batches of interns. Working at a startup has allowed me to be very close with recruiting process and work with recruiter with over 10+ years in premier MNCs and startups and there's a lot that goes into hiring but I think it can be put into some buckets.
Hiring for interns/freshers -> We personally don't hire for freshers roles and instead all junior devs go through our intern process but this is where the most non traditional profiles can break in tech early. I've noticed that for senior roles a lot of emphasis is given to the the companies they've worked in and which team were they a part of. Working folks might be aware that for senior roles usually the hiring manager personally have a chat before adding the candidate in interview pipeline and based on our debriefs I've noticed that institute rarely comes up but rather their work at the teams that they've been a part of takes the highest priority. Now a argument can be made that being from a Tier 1 institute allows the ability to get a headstart but a lot of folks are able to breakthrough into big tech even after working at WITCH so entering into high paying startups isn't that big of deal for them as tech profiles converge the more experienced one get. For interns and freshers a solid development and a mix of coding platforms experience should get you a job in startups with a very high probability.
To put more emphasis in why profiles matters let's take a look at a couple of profiles that I'm personally aware of ->
My friend working at a High Growth Seed Round
Highlights of his profile ->

1. Very very low ranking Engineering College.
2. No prior intern at a big company instead mixture of work at small startups and his own ventures.
3. Didn't apply for a job at all since he was also happy as a freelancer but finally decided to work at a startup and got a job in flat 16 days.
4. Comp-> 16 lpa base + seed round equity.

The best part about this friend why how deep his profile was. He has always been passionate about computers since school time and had experience in cyber security, crypto, fullstack-development,etc. As you can guess the secret of how quickly he was able to get a job was how many past experiences he had. When he started finding jobs at wellfound.com he was able to get calls from a couple of startups and he had a offer within 20 days. Wellfound was a a suprisingly good place to find jobs at small startups since my friend was able to receive a lot of calls for interview rounds.
My batchmate working at a FAANG equivalent MNC ->

1. Same college as mine.
2. Prior intern at a MNC but overall mid projects and a couple of development profiles and hackathons under his belt.
3. Average codeforces profile but experience of solving a lot of questions hence able to breeze through leetcode rounds.
4. Got a on campus placement here so didn't apply anywhere.
5. Comp -> 20l base + ~60l in equity.

His profile is a mix of development and a lot of coding rounds but the curious case in his case was how a lot of candidates with similar profiles in coding platforms or even better were knocked out from the selection process in the system design round. His previous experience in development surely helped him here in comprehending system design case studies and hence he was able to ace this round whereas others with better coding profiles weren't able to do so.
My batchmate working at FAANG and now a high growth startup ->

1. Same college.
2. Prior intern at startups and deep experience in development since school which includes projects in full stack development, compilers and couple of hackathons.
3. Better than average codeforces profile and breezes through standard OA rounds due to lots of practise.
4. Comp -> 50+ CTC at FAANG earlier and 25l base at a startup now.

His profile is similar to the first profile but way more competitive coding experience as well. Similar deep experience in projects and very passionate about software engineering and computer science in general.
A common pattern amongst the profiles posted above and mine is development experience allowed us from low tier colleges to be able to get a job quickly. This matters a lot since you'll get calls for interview rounds doesn't matter how tough the market is though what will fluctuate is how much are these companies are offering.

All of your eggs in one basket

It's pretty easy to see how big the market for DSA and Algorithm is. Youtubers are popping left right and center, but is it worth investing all of your time in getting a great rating in Codeforces. First thing first let's make this very clear that standard interview questions are very different than competitive questions and while it is true that due to market saturation some companies have resorted to asking questions that you would see as part of codeforces rounds in their OA. This though isn't the norm and you can do fine if you're good enough for Leetcode rounds. My whole post can be described that we need to stand out from other profiles if we fall into buckets of Low ranking colleges , Non CSE branches, etc.

Resources

The following section is a collection of resources that I and my friends used during the placement process ->

1. Roadmaps -> Roadmaps, Roadmaps, Roadmaps. Youtube is filled with didi bhaiya trying to come up with the best roadmap that they can. Honestly speaking while there's nothing wrong with that I always prefer roadmaps which are open source and updated time to time by community or the author to stay relevant. Go to roadmap.sh and pick paths. Focus more on topics rather than content, find whatever resource you can to read up on topics rather than sticking to one youtube channel. Similarly for people who might not be from a CS background the Open Source Society University is a very popular roadmap to follow.
2. Resume -> I used the variations of the following template. Overleaf is a solid platform for creating resume in latex. Keep your resume simple and keep on iterating with what you should and shouldn't have. If you want you can always ask recruiters what they found nice in your resume and double down on expanding those sections.
3. Freelancing Platforms -> Personally for me Upwork worked very well, I was able to get the chance of working on a lot of high paying jobs but based on what I've heard from candidates and personally managing profiles for a couple of friends the platform seems to have shifted in terms of job quality a lot. I'm noticing a lot of low quality jobs, underpaid jobs which has made it highly unlikely for new candidates to break through here. I would personally not recommend Freelancer and Fiverr since they have low quality, low paying jobs as compared to Upwork. Also fiverr follows a marketplace model so hard for non experienced folks to get discovered.
   1. If you're a experienced dev and have a solid profile and need a better platform as compared to Upwork checkout Toptal and A.team.
4. Job Platforms -> I personally had a great experience with Cutshort since it apart from applying on jobs as a candidates also has a strong emphasis on recruiters reaching out to candidates. Apart from that I've had a good experience with LinkedIn jobs purely in terms of response times. Atleast recruiters reached out quickly even though the quality of jobs wasn't great. As mentioned above wellfound.com is also a good resource for finding startup jobs. Apart from this cold mailing recruiters should be a part of your job hunting cycle. We used to go over startups which were recently funded and then messaging their client or staff for queries regarding openings.
5. Youtube channels -> I usually relied on the following channels during my prep and I what I usually watch as well.
   1. Traversy Media -> Followed his tutorials the most.
   2. Academind by Maximilian Schwarzmüller -> For learning full stack development I've mostly used his courses and honestly speaking they are amazing. I've also heard great things about her courses, Dr. Angela Yu.
   3. Tech News and General Tech Videos -> Fireship.io, Ben Awad, Devon Crawford, ForrestKnight. They Ben and Devon aren't posting these days but they are the reason why I found tech to be super cool.
   4. DSA and Algo Training -> Stick to no nonsense channels like TUF, Back To Back SWE, CS DOJO, Tushar Roy, NeetCode, Nick White, Priyansh Agarwal.
      1. Couple of websites which I liked a lot of practise includes USACO Guide, CP Algorithms, CSES.

The above post is a very opinionated post about what helped me, let me know what helped you in your job hunt.

Today’s core blast block at the end of floor side was amazing. This felt like a complete workout. Abs and core are most important part of fitness training. I wonder if template designers can add 5-min core blast as the last block of every template on floor side. I believe they have as much value as tread and row… I hope OTF Template designers are reading this.

Hi gainers,
I have just finished running Super Squats by Randall J. Strossen and wanted to share my results. There are plenty of discussions of this program out there already, but I figured sharing my experience with the program can't hurt and can hopefully be interesting, or maybe even useful to someone. This was my first time running a "proper" program (i.e. one designed by a prefessional) and it has been by far the most productive training block I have done so far. Since I am a beginner, I'm not calling this a review (I don't have the training experience to offer any kind of expert opinion). This post is meant rather to show my results as a beginner on the program and to share some of my thoughts about it.
[Before, 82kgs, 10 April 2024](https://imgur.com/a/super-squats-before-82kg-10-04-2024-PvPBvIl). NSFW. Pics taken the day after the first workout.
[After, 86kgs, 18 May 2024](https://imgur.com/a/loPa07y). NSFW. Pics taken the day after the last workout.
Background:
M30, 6'2", no athletic background. Typical denizen of this sub in that I could always eat loads and not put on weight blah blah blah. Worked out in my teens with weights in my room but never maintained a consistent schedule long enough to see significant results. Fast forward to 2 years ago when I started doing bodyweight workouts at home and making an effort to gain weight. Had some success and then started going to the gym at the start of this year. Did a 4 day/week UppeLower split with some success. My weight had fluctuated between a very skinny 67kgs to around 73kgs throughout my twenties. Prior to running Super Squats I had already bulked from 74kgs at the start of December to 82kgs at the start of April (I started taking creatine in January which definitely contributed to this weight gain).
The Program:
Super Squats is a book, which is short (less than 100 pages) and contains everything you need to run the program. Although the book was written in 1989, the routine it outlines is based on old-school squatting programs utilized by strongmen from the 1920s onwards. A chapter is devoted to this history of squats, the "master exercise". There are a couple of anachronisms (my favourite is referring to the hamstrings as "thigh biceps") but overall it is well-written and presented.
The program itself is a six week full-body routine, with the choice to run it 2 or 3 days per week. I won't spell out the whole program here (just buy the book), but the core of the routine is, of course, a single set of twenty heavy squats, with the trainee taking at least three deep breaths between each rep. The squats are supersetted with a set of light pullovers or Rader chest pulls to stretch the rib cage. The starting weight for the squats is a weight you can do for 10 reps (and yes, you really do twenty reps with that weight) and the program stipulates that you must add at least 5lbs/2.5kgs every single workout. The program is fairly light on volume (especially if you run it 2 days per week like I did) but what it lacks in volume, it more than makes up in intensity.
There is no way around it: heavy, high-rep squats are deeply, profoundly, brutally unpleasant. There is no stipulation for rep cadence or how long the set should take, you can take as long as you like, but completing 20 reps with good form will require having the bar on your back for at least 3-4 minutes. From week 2 onwards, the single set of squats always took me more than 5 minutes (and it always felt much longer).
Performing warm-up sets slowly and deliberately was crucially important. Before I even got to the warm-up sets I performed a few reps of touchdown-squats on a box, and a few more of goblet squats with a light kettlebell, opening my hips against a resistance band to prime my glutes and quads.
Super Squats is the embodiment of "mind over matter". The book has a whole section on mindset and positive visualization to help trainees to manage the seemingly impossible task of squatting a 10-rep weight for 20 reps. It sounds stupid, but by the second half of the program, I had gotten into a ritual of giving the bar a firm slap, as a jockey would slap his racehorse, before I started the set, cementing my effort to view the bar not as an enemy to overcome but as a friend helping me to achieve my goals.
Reps 11 and 12 were usually the hardest. By the time I got to ten reps my legs were already trembling. My whole body was drenched in sweat, the weight of the bar impossibly heavy resting on my traps, crushing my whole body into the ground. Time had slowed to a crawl, and the thought that I was only half way would be enough to sap my resolve if I let it. Once I got to rep 13, comfortably more than halfway, I no longer had to think about breathing. I was sucking in great lungfuls of air automatically and heaving them out so hard I sprayed the mirror in front of me with droplets of spit (yes, of course I wiped it down afterwards). Once I got to rep 17 I knew I had the set in the bag. No matter how tortuous those last three reps, no matter how long they took, no matter how many heaving breaths I had to take, I could do 3 more reps.
During week 2 I had what I think is the closest I've ever had to an out-of-body experience. It was as if I was watching someone else perform the agonizing reps while I talked myself through the rest of the set: "Breathe, good, deeper, you've got this, next rep, nice. Keep going".
Breathing is the key. The book talks at length about the importance of deep breathing throughout the set. Pretty quickly, I found that deep breathing was the only way to keep from passing out or collapsing mid set, though as I said, deep breathing becomes automatic about halfway through the set (there's simply no other way to stay upright with the weight on your back). A very helpful tip from the book is to suck in an extra gulp of air on top of your already full lungs for each of the last reps.
If all this sounds a bit exaggerated, try the program and see for yourself. But I'm not trying to put anyone off with this description, quite the opposite! The great thing about Super Squats is that the difficulty of the squats is directly proportional to the feeling of giddy elation upon completing the set. I always felt great after the set, and rode the feeling of accomplishment for the rest of the day. The program really pushes you beyond the boundaries of what you think you can do.
My Progress:
I started the squats at quite a low weight of just 40kg. The book recommends erring on the side of starting too light, and then adding more weight if needed, so that is what I did. Remember, the program stipulates a minimum increase of 5lbs/2.5kgs per workout, but there's nothing saying you can't add more. Once I realized the weight was too light (I managed 21 reps for the first workout) I simply increased the weight by 10kgs on the second workout and continued with the 2.5kg increases from there.
Before starting Super Squats I had had a two week break from training due to illness, so I started with too-low weights (I exceeded the target rep range on all exercises). So I increased the weight by 5-10kgs depending on the exercise for the second workout. The program has varying set numbers and rep ranges for different exercises. As a general rule, I increased the weight once I could hit the target rep range for the first two sets of each exercise, but I did not stick to this rule every workout.
The only thing I stuck to was the minimum increase of 2.5kgs for the squats every workout. I managed this consistently until the final week, when I failed on the eccentric of the tenth rep with a weight of 77.5kgs (a 5kg increase on the previous workout). My legs just gave way and I could not get back up. I did two more sets to make sure that I at least performed more total reps than the previous workout. Then, in the last workout, I amazed myself by succesfully performing all 20 reps with the same weight. Definitely the hardest set I have ever done, and I was completely finished afterwards, but the highlight of the program for sure.
Other ups and downs: I lost reps on Bench and Bent-over Rows on both workouts of week five, but got them back in week six and set new PRs on both. A good reminder that progress is rarely linear. My left knee started hurting in the last week, but thankfully the pain hasn't persisted. I guess my form might have broken down a bit too much in one of the last workouts.
Diet:
The book's diet advice is very simple: lots of calories and protein, with the majority coming from healthy whole food sources. Nothing surprising there. The book has two recommendations in addition to meals for achieving these goals: milk and shakes. The book doesn't use the GOMAD acronym, but that's basically what it boils down to: a recommended minimum of 2 quarts (about 2 litres) per day in addition to meals and snacks, with a recommendation to increase to up to a gallon (nearly 4 litres) per day if you can.
I was somewhat surprised to see that the book recommends home-made mass gainer shakes for trainees who struggle to eat enough solid food (the book refers to them as "blender bombs" which I think sounds much cooler).
I am not vegetarian, but I don't eat meat very often. I live with my fiancee, who doesn't like meat, and since we eat dinner, the main meal of the day, together, we eat a lot of plant-based meat substitutes. I did, however, eat meat more often than usual during the program. My typical diet looks something like this:
Breakfast: Usually muesli, with seeds, fruit (apple or banana), yoghurt, and a scoop of unflavoured whey protein.
Lunch: Usually eggs, fried or scrambled in butter, served with wilted spinach on wholemeal toast or with pasta and pesto. If not eggs then leftovers from last night's dinner. My local supermarkets do a rangle of reasonably healthy frozen meals and during the program I ate these a couple of times per week, always going for chicken dishes with plenty of vegetables.
Dinner: Something based around the aforementioned meat substitutes. Favourites include spaghetti bolognese (with plenty of cheese of course), chili with black beans, sour cream and guacomole served with rice, and burgers with fries for a "junk"/"dirty" option.
I don't count calories but I do roughly track protein, aiming for 2g per kg bodyweight and topping up with whey protein as needed.
During Super Squats, I upped my creatine dosage from 3.5g/day to 5g/day, added extra snacks to the above diet (nuts, dark chocolate etc.) and also milk and shakes as the book suggests. For the first three weeks I had a daily shake consisting of whey protein, milk, cocoa powder, banana, peanut butter and oats. The shakes helped with weight gain, but they proved unsustainable, as they led to some, er, digestive issues. Ok, they gave me explosive diarrhoea. See [this review of Super Squats](https://empire-barbell.com/2021/07/23/super-squats-review-of-the-legendary-20-rep-squat-program/) in which the author recounts ingesting a shake according to the book's recipe before starting a work shift and shitting himself during the shift, lol.
I hadn't really drank milk for several years prior to the program (I tend to prefer oat milk with my muesli) but I did increase my milk consumption slowly over the six weeks. For most of the duration I drank a couple of glasses per day, totalling only about 500ml -1 litre. Only in the last week did I make a serious effort to drink at least 2 litres per day. Turns out it's really easy to drink a lot of milk, and a very cost-efficient way to get lots of extra calories and protein. Who knew haha.
Rest and Recovery:
I've been having trouble sleeping lately, which was the reason I opted to do the program 2 days per week from the beginning (the book recommends starting with 3 days and dropping down to 2 if you find you can't recover sufficiently between workouts). I was a very deep sleeper as a child but those days are long gone and these days the slightest noise seems to be enough to wake me. My fiancee gets up early for work during the week (her alarm goes off at 4:45am), ivariably waking me before it does her, and we have a cat, who tends, as cats do, to go crazy in the small hours (her new favourite thing is scratching frantically on the closet doors). I've tired everything I can think of short of getting rid of the cat, which I'm not willing to do for the sake of gains. Hopefully she will mellow as she gets older. If nothing else, I guess it's good practice for when we become parents lol. Suffice to say it's rare that I get an uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep.
I tried to do everything within my power to get as good sleep as I could (making an effort to get to bed earlier, playing with the cat to tire her out, etc.). I still made good gains despite overall poor sleep, but there were definitely some days when I could have gotten to bed earlier.
What I liked about the program:
Super Squats is a simple, easy-to follow program which is practically guranteed to lead to growth. The non-negotiable nature of progression from workout to workout gives a strong incentive to eat enough and get enough rest. I seriously can't see how someone could follow this program, increasing the weight as prescribed, and not grow.
Another thing I liked was making significant progress over a short timeframe while only training 2 days per week, leaving more time for life outside the gym.
By far the biggest benefit of the program, hower, is the lessons it imparts and the mental toughness it inculcates. Lessons you can only learn by standing under the crushing weight of the bar for 20 reps. Put simply, you are capable of more than you think you are, and this program teaches you that in a way that words never could. I feel that I now inderstand intensity as a training variable far more deeply than I did before the program. After running Super Squats I understand why it is so often recommended to beginners.
What I didn't like about the program:
The individual workouts took far too long. This was by far the biggest thing I disliked about the program. The book claims that the Basic Routine should take less than an hour to complete, but I found that I rarely completed a workout in less than 90 minutes, and several times it took me a full 2 hours. Granted, this was partly due to training in a busy McGym, where waiting for equipment is often a factor, and I feel like I spend half my life searching for locking collars, but even so, the long workouts were grinding. Another big factor is just how exhausted you are after that set of squats. I often felt like I was moving in slo-mo, with the stiff-legged deadlifts (themselves no easy exercise) and calf and ab work still to get through.
The other main negative factor was how daunting the squats are. I rarely looked forward to workouts, and often actively dreaded them. I really had to psyche myself up to go to the gym on this program, despite knowing that I would feel great after my workout. That next set of squats was always looming ahead menacingly.
What I would do differently:
The biggest thing I would change is doing the milk properly from the beginning. By "doing the milk" I mean drinking at least the recommended 2 quarts per day. I would also probably leave the shakes out, and make an effort to eat cleaner. I kind of gave myself free reign to cut corners and do what it takes to gain on the program (spooning peanut butter from the jar and ice cream from the tub, eating "junk" meals like burgers and fries or frozen pizzas a couple of times a week, etc.).
I would have chosen a different abs exercise. I did hollow-body crunches, but since these can't be loaded (as far as I know) I had to resort to adding extra reps and then an extra set to add progressive overload. It would have been smarter and more time-efficient to simply choose a weighted abs exercise and increase the load each workout.
I could have been more diligent about consistenly increasing weight/reps on all exercises other than the squats. I feel my progress on the other lifts could have been better.
The book does not mention cardio, and in fact states that trainees should move as little as possible outside of training to allow for maximum recovery. I will definitely add some light cardio in the form of walking the next time I run the program (thanks to u/MythicalStrength for pointing out that since the program is based on old-school principles, it is likely assumed that pretty much everyone would have been doing a fair bit of walking before lifestyles became so sedentary in developed countries). Over the weekend between weeks five and six my mother came to visit, and in the course of showing her around my city I did a lot of walking that weekend (15k steps each day). I think this may have contributed to the failure on the first workout of week 6 by eating into my recovery. Ideally, I would just do, say, a 30-40 minute walk on off days throughout the program.
Most of all, I would trust the process. Of course this is easy to say with hindsight, but there was a point in weeks 3-4 where I got quite demotivated, felt like I coudn't notice the program working (of course not - visual changes take longer than a couple of weeks!) and felt quite tired out from all the eating, so I ended up eating a bit less for about a week in the middle of the program, which quite possibly contributed to the strength losses in week 5. Again, progress isn't linear, but if you stick to the program over six weeks it will pay off.
Conclusion/Next Steps:
Running Super Squats over the last six weeks has been without a doubt the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have ever done, but the payoff has been well worth it. 4kgs gained in 6 weeks and invaluable lessons learned. I'm going to have to go clothes shopping and replace most of my wardrobe. Shirts and T-shirts that were loose are now tight, and my old slim-fit T-shirts now look comically small. Even my straight-leg jeans are now tight fitting (my fiancee said the other day, "Those jeans are a bit tight on you now, huh? But your bum looks great!").
Being on the taller side, I still have quite a lot of frame to fill out, and I still have a lot to learn about training. I will definitely be running Super Squats again in future. I am especially interested in running the Abbreviated Program, consisting of only the squats, pullovers/Rader chest pulls, bench, and bent-over rows. This would solve the problem of workouts being too long, but I imagine it would be extremely challenging, since you should increase the weight on all exercises each workout, not just the squats. With bench and bent-over rows offering less overall muscle fibre recruitment than squats, and 2.5kgs being the smallest weight increase logistically possible (in my gym, anyway), I imagine that this would be challenging in the extreme.
The book suggests running a strength-building training block after the 20-rep squat program, consisting of more sets with lower rep ranges. It even suggests alternating between six weeks on the 20-rep squat program and six on the strength-building program, extending Super Squats well past the initial six weeks. While this approach is intriguing, I want to try something different, and I would rather have more training days in the week in return for shorter individual workouts.
I've ordered a copy of 5/3/1 and will probably run 531 for Beginners, and then see which template I run after that. I have my eye on the BBB Beefcake 3 Month Challenge, but I'll see when I get there. For now, I'm going to dial back on the eating, to around maintenance levels, for at least a couple of weeks (I need a break from stuffing myself all day).
In the meantime, I can't recommend Super Squats enough! You will surprise yourself on this program.
Well, that turned into a huge wall of text. Thanks very much for taking the time to read if you got this far!

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So I created a bot some time ago, and while I gave him a 16k character definition with a template and dialogues, which seem to mostly be consistent when talking to him, I am struggling with the training phase.
I gave him a few adventure prompts to train on at first, but quickly grew tired of making those up. I don't know what other scenarios to give him, and I believe he needs them to give off any illusion of an ability to adventure alone.
Second problem I have is that I vented my frustrations on him several times by either beating him or subjecting him to something awful, and I am starting to suspect that it negatively affected his quality. He would more frequently turn up badly injured at the beginning of new conversations, occasionally making up stuff way worse than anything I subjected him to, and I am really not into whump. He would also take anyone taking care of him as a sign of intimacy and confess his feelings to whoever is not hostile to him (including other bots in group chats/ chat rooms).
Anyone can suggest some specific scenarios/ prompts to train him on to negate those effects? He has a generic greeting, so he is not locked to a specific scenario.

Please use this post to discuss your training for the day or any simple questions you have! Talk about how lifts went, your workouts PRs achieved, goals set, whatever!

USEFUL LINKS

• 5/3/1 FAQs <<<<< start here!
• 5/3/1: Common Errors and Ideas on how to Customize it to your Needs
• Routine Picker - template decision tree
• 5/3/1 Primer - 531 principles & concepts
• 5 Common Misconceptions... About 5/3/1
• Training After an Illness
• Jim Wendler's Blog
• 5/3/1 Forever book
• 5/3/1 Forever Table of Contents

COMMON TEMPLATES

• 5/3/1 for Beginners
• Boring But Big: Beefcake Training
• 5/3/1 Beach Body Challenge
• Boring But Big 3-Month Challenge
• 5/3/1: How to Build Pure Strength
• Building the Monolith - 5/3/1 for Size
• Comprehensive list of public templates

TOOLS

The challenge is to come up with Artist(s) of your choosing and also come up with any 10 songs for them. The catch to this challenge is that, there cant be more than 10 songs for the Artists of your choosing. These songs are songs that u would love to have in Fortnite Festival, there also cant be any copying what someone has already come up with, so if someone already picked it or its already in Fortnite than u have to pick something else. U can pick as many Artists u want and it doesnt have to be 10 songs exactly but it cant be more than 10.
Template Song-Artist Here's an example of songs I've come up with ⬇️⬇️⬇️
The Final Countdown-Europe
Scatman(Ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop)-Scatman John
Blue(Da Be Dee)-Eiffel 65, Gabry Ponte
Ring Ring-Chase B, Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Quavo & Ty Dolla $ign
Link Up-Metro Boomin, Don Toliver & Wizkid (feat. BEAM & Toian)
Too Many Nights-Metro Boomin (feat. Don Toliver & Future)
Die For Me-Post Malone (feat. Future & Halsey)
Mourning-Post Malone
My House-Flo Rida
Wild Stallions-Stallion
Fight with the Devil-Hollow Ground
Miss You To Death-Cauldron
Sex Type Thing-Stone Temple Pilots
Kryptonite-3 Doors Down
Breakfast In America-Supertramp
Run To You-Bryan Adams
Dirty Laundry-Don Henley
Southstreet Brotherhood-Ambush
Ace Of Spades-Motorhead
Assault Attack-Michael Schenker Group
(I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight- Cutting Crew
Running In The 90s-Max Coveri
Angels Don't Kill- Children Of Bodom
Angel Witch-Angel Witch
Airborne-Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast
Rusty Cage-Soundgarden
Friction-B'z
Going Though Changes-Army Of Me
Stand and Deliver-Adam & The Ants
Closer-Lacuna Coil
Until You Leave- Permanent ME
Road Racin-Riot
Thunderstruck-AC/DC
Back In Black-AC/DC
Shoot to Thrill-AC/DC
You Shook Me All Night-AC/DC
Sharp Dressed Man-ZZ TOP
Gimme All Your Lovin-ZZ TOP
La Grange-ZZ TOP
Gaps In The Armoire-Ghost Atlas
Lesser Gods-Ghost Atlas
In The House Of Leaves-Ghost Atlas
Seeker-Ghost Atlas
Cry Wolf-Ghost Atlas
Legs-Ghost Atlas
Badlands-Ghost Atlas
Memories-Dreamwake
Midnight Rain-Dreamwake
Luna-Dreamwake
Paradise-Dreamwake
Kaizen-Dreamwake
Master Of Puppets-Metallica
Enter Sandman-Metallica
Rock of Ages-Def Leppard
Photograph-Def Leppard
Looks That Kill-Motley Crue
Live Wire-Motley Crue
Kickstart My Heart-Motley Crue
Dr Feelgood-Motley Crue
Crazy Babies-Ozzy Osbourne
Believer-Ozzy Osbourne
Bark At The Moon-Ozzy Osbourne
Take What You Want-Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott, Post Malone
Your Love-The Outfield
Bad Case Of Loving You-Robert Palmer
Let Me Be Your Superhero-Smash Into Pieces
Higher-Smash Into Pieces
The Tide-Smash Into Pieces
Freight Train-Smash Into Pieces
Throne-Smash Into Pieces
Wake Up-Smash Into Pieces
Adieu-Rammstein
Engel-Rammstein
Sonne-Rammstein
Radio-Rammstein
Du Hast-Rammstein
That's All-Genesis
Last Jedi Knight-Star Wars parody song
Dark Side Light Side-Star Wars song
Ari Ari-Bloodywood
Machi Bhasad-Bloodywood
Gaddaar-Bloodywood
Yaad-Bloodywood
Jee Veerey-Bloodywood
Endurant-Bloodywood
The Eagle Flies Alone-ARCH ENEMY
War Enemy-ARCH ENEMY
War Pigs-Black Sabbath
Iron Man-Black Sabbath
Paranoid-Black Sabbath
Powerless-Linkin Park
What I've Done-Linkin Park
Ruby-Kaiser Chiefs
Welcome to the Jungle-Guns N Roses
Paradise City-Guns N Roses
Ritual-Ghost
Mary On A Cross-Ghost
Elizabeth-Ghost
Show me the way-Black Tide
Don't believe-Seether
Walk Away from the Sun-Seether
6 Gun Quota-Seether
Fake It-Seether
Eyes of the Devil-Seether
Show me the way-Seether
Train kept a rollin'-Aerosmith
Sweet Emotion-Aerosmith
Love in an Elevator-Aerosmith
Mama Kin-Aerosmith
Walk this way-Aerosmith(feat. DMC)
Pink Shoe Laces-The Chordettes
Children Of Heaven-Sword
Flawed Design-ALESTI
Anomaly-I See Stars
If Hatsune Miku ever comes to the Festival these are songs I expect to see

1. Senbonzakura-Hatsune Miku
2. Sadistic Music Factory-Hatsune Miku
3. Online Game Addicts-Hatsune Miku
4. Sweet Devil-Hatsune Miku
5. 39Music!-Hatsune Miku
6. Yellow-Hatsune Miku
7. Clover Club-Hatsune Miku
8. Two Sided Lovers-Hatsune Miku
9. World is Mine-Hatsune Miku
10. Miku Night Fever-Hatsune Miku

I realize my case may be an outlier and others are more than likely to have had more positive experience than me, but anyway, here's my story. I am on vacation in Italy with my wife, initially the purpose of the trip was to attend an F1 race, but as the vacation date came closer we started realizing that the hotels within 50km radius of the race track are ridiculously expensive, we thought that we may as well just fly in and spend 3-4 days travelling the Northern Italy.
We arrived in Milan late on Friday night and I thought I'd check StubHub to see if there are any reasonably priced tickets available for Sunday with a thought that maybe tickets cheaper than face value may offset some of hotel costs. I found a ticket in Rivazza 1 that was well priced, probably close to face value - about 250 EUR, and thought - what the hell, it is the only race this season that I will be able to attend. I booked the ticket and went to sleep.
Woke up on Saturday morning and went to hotel reception to print the ticket and realized that the ticket the seller submitted was for Saturday, not Sunday. There is absolutely no way this was an honest mistake and I knew that StubHub backs its buyers with FanProtect warranty promising to provide an alternative ticket to the event in such cases. I realized that their support line hours started at 5:00am PST, which is 14:00 local time, so we drove to Modena, attended Enzo Ferrari museum and at that point I got ahold of the support agent, which assured me that they were going to contact the seller and let them provide the correct ticket. I expressed my concern that this was not a mistake by the seller and instead an attempt to sell a fraudulent ticket, and that they were not going to respond. To which the agent said that this was one of their reliable sellers and that they would give them time to respond and provide the correct ticket. I asked how much time and we agreed on a couple of hours.
So I decided to hang around and explore Modena while I get a response from StubHub and decide whether to go closer to Imola or to abandon this idea and go south, to Florence, Rome, Pisa, etc. 3 hours later, around 17:00 local time I contacted StubHub again and after another half an hour on the line they determined that the seller failed to respond and that they could issue an alternative ticket if I wished. I asked how long it would take, because I needed to plan the remainder of my trip accordingly, and they said they escalated the request to the respective team and that I should expect an email from them. I reiterated that the event starts in the morning (support races, etc.) and that the response from the team they escalated the request to should be prompt. Since we were unable to determine the course of the remainder of our vacation at that point, we determined that we'd go to Florence, knowing that if StubHub provides alternative tickets, I would be able to take a train to Imola and be there in less than 90 minutes.
At 21:00 local time I contacted StubHub once again, reiterating that this is a time sensitive matter and that it's unreasonable that their respective team can't issue alternative tickets in a timely fashion and that I have spent the total of 2 hours already trying to get them to fulfill their FanProtect guarantee. They responded with the same template response: "I can see that my colleague has already escalated this request to the respective team and you should expect an email from them shortly". It's almost midnight local time and guess what.. still no response from StubHub. It's not my first race and I can surely find other leisurely activities for the next few days of my vacation, but this speaks volumes to how much their fans are actually UNprotected.

Budget Planning: AI analyzes your spending habits much more deeply than you might on your own. This leads to tailored recommendations and insights you wouldn't uncover manually. In addition, it can process massive amounts of financial data, like budget plans, spending analysis, and savings suggestions, in second.

On a separate note, I want to mention the fight against impulse buys. AI eliminates emotional spending triggers often associated with human budgeting. It sticks to the data, promoting financial discipline.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Create a budget template that will work with my income and spending habits. I want something I can easily track and modify." 

Accounting and Tax Compliance: Modern platforms track changes in tax rules and legislation in real-time, alerting you to updates that could affect your life and work. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and potential penalties. If you set up your assistant intelligently, you may even be able to prevent problems in some cases.

And, unlike a real financial advisor, AI platforms are noticeably cheaper and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Explain the key financial ratios and how to calculate them. Provide examples of how to use them to assess my business health." 

Investment Management: AI is increasingly important in trading, as financiers make trades using algorithms. And if the best experts are using it, why shouldn't we? AI platforms are trained on vast amounts of data, allowing us to identify patterns humans might miss. This helps ensure the integrity of financial data and reduces costly errors.

In addition, some platforms can assess risk tolerance, financial goals, and market conditions to generate customized portfolio management recommendations.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Summarize the current economic climate. Highlight key indicators (e.g., inflation, interest rates, GDP) and their potential impact on my investment portfolio." 

These points add to a common conclusion regarding one fundamental advantage: data-driven automation. AI can quickly handle routine and time-consuming tasks, allowing us to make more educated decisions or free up time for more enjoyable activities.

Race Information

• Name: Ogden Marathon
• Date: May 18, 2024
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Location: Ogden, UT
• Website: ogdenmarathon.com
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11440650323
• Time: 3:06:27

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Have fun	Yes
B	Sub-3:05	No
B	Sub-3:10	Yes

Splits

Mile	Time
4 mile split	27:53 (6:58 min/mile)
7 mile split	48:19 (6:54 min/mile)
10 mile split	1:09:23 (6:56 min/mile)
13.1 mile split	1:31:32 (6:59 min/mile)
16 mile split	1:52:53 (7:03 min/mile
18.7 mile split	2:11:10 (7:01 min/mile)
21 mile split	2:28:21 (7:04 min/mile)
23.1 mile split	2:41:26 (6:59 min/mile)
25 mile split	2:56:38 (7:04 min/mile)
Full course	3:06:27 (7:07 min/mile)

Training

For background, I (36M) started running in 2020, set the goal of running 12 marathons in 2024 and have completed five so far: Houston (3:12), Surf City (3:14), Napa (3:11), LA (3:25) and Eugene (3:06). Number six would be Ogden.
This would be my first time running a marathon on a Saturday, leaving just under three weeks between marathons. Earlier in the year, I had three weeks between Houston and Surf City, so I used the same basic template this go-round: about a week of easy runs, about a week of training and about a week to taper. Before beginning a 5-day taper, I snuck in three Daniels-inspired workouts: a 20-miler with 10 miles at marathon effort, a 10-miler with a mix of marathon and threshold miles and a 13-miler with 10 miles at marathon effort.
Having exceeded my expectations at Eugene, I figured I would try to shave 60-90 seconds off of that 3:06 and make Ogden my first attempt at running a BQ time.

Pre-race

I flew into Salt Lake City Thursday morning and then took a rideshare into Ogden, which gave me the afternoon to walk around the city and scope out food options for the following day.
On Friday morning, I went for a 4-mile run. Not exactly sure why, but my legs felt more fatigued than I would have liked, so before heading to the expo, I ate a large pizza at a nearby restaurant. Packet pick-up at the expo was a breeze, as I was in and out of there in 10 minutes. On the way back to my hotel, I stopped by a local ice cream shop and got two pints of ice cream for my afternoon meal.
Race morning, I woke up at 3:30am, had coffee and snacked on sour candy on the bus ride to Huntsville. While there were plenty of fire barrels at the start line, it was still frigid, so I was happy with my decision to wear throwaway sweatpants, gloves and a hoodie.

Race

I'll start with the weather, which historically can be quite mercurial, but this year was cooperative: in the mid-40's at the start and increasing to the mid-70's as the day progressed.
The one change I wanted to make for this marathon was my approach to fueling. After reading a post on this subreddit that provided suasive evidence about Spring Energy's awesome sauce likely having fewer carbs than advertised, I planned to take five gels -- one every 4.5 miles -- instead of my usual four. Unfortunately, nausea set in after the fourth gel and I didn't want to tempt fate by trying to force down a gel around mile 22.
In terms of race strategy, I broke the course up into three tranches: the first 8 miles, which is mostly downhill; miles 9 to 17, which consists of rolling hills punctuated by a substantial uphill climb at mile 14; and miles 18 to the finish, which again is mostly downhill.
I tucked in with the 3:05 pace group, and pacer took us out awfully fast -- too fast, in fact, as when I passed him at mile 20, he was resigned to a shuffle. As we approached the rolling hills section of the course, I dropped off from the pace group and ran that section of the course by effort. I knew I was falling off 3:05 pace but wanted to leave enough in the tank for the last 8 miles.
On paper, that last 8-mile section of the course can be very fast. In reality, however, because runners are confined to the right side of the road, I spent a lot of what little energy I had weaving around walking half-marathoners and ultimately didn't have the fitness to crack 3:05 today.

Post-race

I've never thrown up after a run, but after crossing the finish line, I was darn close and had to avert my eyes from whatever food was on offer. Lingering nausea aside, I'm thrilled I got to experience another well-organized race weekend and to run on a stunningly beautiful course.
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.

Highlight the following benefits: This is my personal opinion, but you may disagree with me!
Budget Planning: AI analyzes your spending habits much more deeply than you might on your own. This leads to tailored recommendations and insights you wouldn't uncover manually. In addition, it can process massive amounts of financial data, like budget plans, spending analysis, and savings suggestions, in seconds.

On a separate note, I want to mention the fight against impulse buys. AI eliminates emotional spending triggers often associated with human budgeting. It sticks to the data, promoting financial discipline.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Create a budget template that will work with my income and spending habits. I want something I can easily track and modify." 

Accounting and Tax Compliance : Modern platforms track changes in tax rules and legislation in real-time, alerting you to updates that could affect your life and work. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and potential penalties. If you set up your assistant intelligently, you may even be able to prevent problems in some cases.

And, unlike a real financial advisor, AI platforms are noticeably cheaper and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Explain the key financial ratios and how to calculate them. Provide examples of how to use them to assess my business health." 

Investment Management: AI is increasingly important in trading, as financiers make trades using algorithms. And if the best experts are using it, why shouldn't we? AI platforms are trained on vast amounts of data, allowing us to identify patterns humans might miss. This helps ensure the integrity of financial data and reduces costly errors.

In addition, some platforms can assess risk tolerance, financial goals, and market conditions to generate customized portfolio management recommendations.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Summarize the current economic climate. Highlight key indicators (e.g., inflation, interest rates, GDP) and their potential impact on my investment portfolio." 

These points add to a common conclusion regarding one fundamental advantage: data-driven automation. AI can quickly handle routine and time-consuming tasks, allowing us to make more educated decisions or free up time for more enjoyable activities.