Day 1469 Record Keeping
Day 1440 Fixed Meditation (10 min, vipassana)
Day 1315 Writing (2 13 min Pomodoro)
Day 854 Rowing (15 min/2600 m)
Day 595 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
Day 245 Social Media (PAUSED)
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Good sleep. Had a bunch of errands that took all day yesterday, hence the lack of recording.

Testing Cal Newport's Advice

I'm starting to test out some of the protocols Cal Newport advises in his book Deep Work, and today it was really good. The two things I focused on were removing distractions and writing down a detailed to-do list.

Today I tried this by blocking Reddit and Facebook for the duration of work. I also used his method of making a plan right before starting. It's amazing what a difference these small things make.

His writing really underscores the severe problems I have with focusing and working, and what I need to change. I often feel like I don't have enough hours in the day, even though I've been working the entire time. His point is that we often get into this fractured mental state where we just aimlessly check email in front of a computer, and this takes up most of our day.

Rigorously finding where to cut these distractions is the key to work that actually matters. I think he's really on the money.

Day 1460 Record Keeping
Day 1431 Fixed Meditation (15 min, metta/vipassana)
Day 1306 Writing (1 13 min Pomodoro)
Day 845 Rowing (10 min/1800 m)
Day 586 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
Day 236 Social Media (DID NOT DO)
Day 87 Weekly Meal Prep SRHI = 32
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Great sleep. It's been rough.

My friends from Texas stayed with us and we did some traveling. Getting back into a routine has been like pulling teeth, and I have to imagine that if Endurance is the cumulative effect of Willpower, then it too can be depleted. Today I'm back, at minimums, but I feel pretty good.

During the visit I was able confront some really difficult situations with almost complete aplomb. Those were situations that even a few months ago I would have exploded over. So I think I've made significant improvements meditation-wise, and I think this cross training is paying off. I did quite a lot of mobility, and in two instances used a frozen water bottle to really work my quads. I did some pretty intense climbing to get to the top of a tower in Valencia - the views were great, but my poor legs were shot. I found the frozen water bottle worked really well. Kelly Starrett had a video on working on quads, and he said they were excruciating to properly mobilize. He was absolutely right. When Starrett says it's excruciating, you know it's gotta be bad.

I think a lot of the difficulty I have in getting back to my routine is that I know that certain aspects are just going to get better in a few months. We are leaving Spain very shortly (in April) to repatriate in the States, and this feeling of purgatory has got me unconsciously thinking "what's the point?" This especially applies to meal prep (having more space to do a proper one and get food in bulk) and exercise (I won't have my rower anymore and will have to find other exercises to do). I also think it'll be a lot better in terms of light and energy. So many of the small willpower drains that sap me as an expat can be recruited to push my habits.

Nevertheless I will endeavor to do as much as I can now. I'm only at minimums, and the book I just finished reading, Cal Newport's Deep Work, has me seriously questioning my social media habit. My Meal Prep habit is shot. Even though I did it today, it's definitely no longer a habit. It underscores the theory that just as it's harder to form a once a week habit, it's also easier to break.

But at the end of the day it feels good to be back. Picking habits back up is more than half the battle.

EDIT: Something I forgot to add was that I'll be taking the SRHI for the meal prep in order to test whether it's better to just start from scratch or soldier on in order to regain the automaticity. There is some research out there that suggests once we make that fold in our brain that it's always kind've there, and therefore it's easier to reinstate.