The Science of Self-Help

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Day 885 & Starting Habits I’m Pushing Skills In

Day 885 Record Keeping
Day 857 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 731 Writing (3/30 min)
Day 271 Rowing (20 min/3400 m)
Day 12 Mobility/Stretching 55 (hip opener)
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Eating
Day 109 Pantry Check
Day 107 Food Recording

Early to Rise
Day 40 Bacon & Water
Day 40 Sleep Recording (12:40|1:30|11|11:20)
Day 12 Bedtime Curfew 53

Good sleep, good wakeup. Day before yesterday had a late night with visitors from the States. Had a fantastic time, but it caused the next day to skew off track. I did all my initial habits, but writing failed to start, which caused everything else to fail as well, haha.

Starting Habits I’m Pushing Skills In

It’s interesting that drains on willpower have repercussions the next day. It’s also interesting that deep work - advancing in skills -  has such a draining effect. I’ve been having problems starting writing the last several weeks. I do find that once I dive in, it’s no problem.

Recently in meditation, as soon as i get into the room I start my 30 minute timer, which forces me to start quickly, when normally I’d dawdle. I’m thinking I might have to do something like this for writing. Instead I usually dither around for a long time to avoid starting.

I think my flirting with ritual (I still haven’t really written about that, have I?) was interesting because it was a nano-behavior that helped me transition from one task to the next. This is particularly important if the task is difficult and uncomfortable. The beginning of the 30 minute timer obligates me to start meditating, and acts like this. 

There’s something to all of this, but it’s not clear now - I’m sure it will be once I start doing more intense pushing of skills.