The Science of Self-Help

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Day 1078 & Resetting Sleep After Jet Lag

Day 1078 Record Keeping
Day 1050 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 924 Writing (2/13 min, draft)
Day 464 Rowing (HIIT, 15s:60s, 14 min, 2500 m)
Day 205 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch, back smash)
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Eating
Day 302 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 300 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
Day 30 Sunday Meal Prep 71 (retroactive from Sunday)

Early to Rise
Day 233 Water
Day 233 Sleep Recording  (12:30|12:50|2|3)
Day 204 Bedtime Curfew
Day 42 Wakeup Alarm 80

Ok sleep, great wakeup. Woke up again at 3 am. I really need to learn how I can

Reset Sleep After Jet Lag
I think the biggest problem with resetting sleep has to do with my relationship with writing. Writing is my biggest challenge. When I started out seriously writing, I got more sleep because if I was tired at all there was no way I could choose the words I needed carefully and really think. It wasn’t like a regular job where people regularly show up with half a mind. As a writer I have to be totally alert and rested, and I can barely make it through when I’m at 100%.

I’m beginning to see that as the old way of doing writing. Rather than thinking of writing as a super cerebral perfect choosing of poetic words emphasizing specific turns of speech from the get-go, my new model of writing has to do with several passes done at a rather low thinking level in order to avoid perfectionism and resulting writer’s block.

Thinking less is actually pretty helpful for busting out a rough draft. Thinking less is really helpful for removing The Editor mentality when scamping for sentence level rewriters. James Patterson’s idea of progressing quickly through many rewrites to prevent getting stuck at any one point backs this point up. It switches the whole endeavor to a more mechanistic, workflow driven emphasis that has less to do with one specific success or mistake. I like it.

It also means that I should at least be able to force myself to get up earlier, for at least a reset. Unfortunately I’ve been doing my sleeping one way for quite a long time, so in the moment I naturally default to habitual behavior. Time to change!