Day 1149 Record Keeping
Day 1121 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 995 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 535 Rowing (rowing, 30 min)
Day 276 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
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Early to Rise
Day 304 Sleep Recording (4:30|11:30)
Day 275 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO)
Day 113 Wakeup Alarm (DID NOT DO)
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Great sleep.

Reversing Habit Sequence Protocol for an Improper Discharge of One Behavior
I’ve really got to learn how to write titles…

Over the last week I’ve had to do a particularly painful task in my writing habit for work. I usually write at the very beginning of the day - theoretically I have the most willpower, so I should be able to go through the pain that writing brings. And that usually works, because on any given day writing is the most painful thing.

However, the last few days I’ve woken up, come up to my writing, and it’s smacked me right down - I don’t even begin. And because I don’t begin, none of my other habits discharge.

This has happened before. The only time I’ve been able to get around it in some capacity is during this last NaNoWriMo, where I was incredibly proud to have not only gone above and beyond in writing, but I DID ALL MY OTHER HABITS.

That’s huge. Think about it - we almost always as a society give a PASS to people who are are challenging themselves. Of course students are going to eat crappy and sleep at odd hours while cramming for a test. But that’s far from the ideal.

What did I do different? During NaNoWriMo I reversed the order of my habits. This was initially done because of time - busting out 20,000 words a day takes a long time even if you’re not dawdling. So, I got everything else done quickly, then hit the word processor in order to have the most time as possible.

While I believe that saving willpower for the hardest task of the day is sound, it’s only if that task doesn’t hit some sort of as yet unspecified line. And that line seems to have something to do specifically with pushing an already established habit. I’ve not only noticed this with writing, but also with doing a particularly challenging HIIT sequence when I’m being run ragged.

In these cases it seems better to reverse the sequence in order to get a rhythm of doing things in order to develop a flow and an inertia - you’re getting small things out of the way, gaining small victories in order to hit the main event. And perhaps that factor of flow might, in certain cases, work as a lubricating variable despite having less willpower.

I’m unconvinced as to the theory of when and why I need to use it, and I’d like to fiddle around with it more. Today when I attempted this reversal I still procrastinated on my hard task, but it felt like less of a barrier than previous days. AND I did all of my other habits, so all things being equal I got a ton more done today - it’s already a huge difference.

I still don’t think this protocol is quite nailed down, but I’m still playing around with other solutions,