Day 1149 & Reversing Habit Sequence Protocol for an Improper Discharge of One Behavior

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, 

Day 1009 & NANOWRIMO 2016 WIN

Day 1009 Record Keeping
Day 981 Fixed Meditation (5 min)
Day 855 Writing (NaNoWriMo Complete - 20,000 words today!!!)
Day 395 Rowing (biked for about 20 minutes)
Day 136 Mobility/Stretching (couch stretch, 1 min each side)
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Eating
Day 233 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 231 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
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Early to Rise
Day 164 Water
Day 164 Sleep Recording  (12:40|2:11|10:10|10:20)
Day 135 Bedtime Curfew 77
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Good sleep, good wakeup. 

Nailed NaNoWriMo in a personal record breaking 5 days. Because of various disruptions (all good) I had to and did write half of it today. 20,000 words. I found that a modified Pomodoro really helped a lot, and really just starting the timer even when I wasn’t ready. I have a theory on this - it seems to work really well for me in other habits, like mobilization and meditation - otherwise there’s a sort of paralysis that occurs because of over thinking it. I think I’m so indoctrinated into thinking that any one instance has to be superb, that I’m not getting on a visceral level that consistency more than covers for it. 

I have a bunch of notes on this, and I’ll post a big article on the fear of starting a task - especially one like writing that has so much fear embedded within it. Lydia asked me if I think it’ll transfer to real work - and I think it will to a certain extent - I think my real work involves a combination of this type of first draft writing, editing, and research, and doing them all seamlessly takes a bit of planning. 

That’s all for another day - I intend to spend the rest of today basking in my win!

Day 965 & Finished Book Proposal

Day 965 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits (Travel Mode)

Day 351 Exercise (walking tour)
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Eating
Day 187 Food Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 120 Water
Day 120 Sleep Recording (1|8:30|)
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Ok sleep, good wakeup. 

FINISHED BOOK PROPOSAL. 

This is a rather huge thing for me, not because it’s a proposal, and furthers my hopes as a writer, but because of how improved behaviors played into its completion. 

I had no idea how to do this. I learned how to do a competitive analysis, how to get statistics, and how to write marketing-type copy - all of which were incredibly difficult for me. I didn’t want to do it, but I kept moving forward, even if it was a slow pace. 

I read multiple books and websites. I took multiple online courses, including an interactive one (I hate those and have a history of not sticking with them). With my Gotham Writer’s Course I finished the first course with homework and necessary class interactions in close to a decade. And I did it while not procrastinating at all - every day, bit by bit, I waded through it, despite incredibly high amounts of anxiety.

I also fought perfectionism - the urge to, at every section, get lost in a labyrinth of research. That was equally as difficult - realizing when I was doing it and forcing myself to move on.

And I continued working through trips, visits from friends, while maintaining and creating other routines. It’s taken me….wow, I suppose since NaNoWriMo - so almost 10 months.  And it all grew from 750 words and in the most recent iteration, a 50 word-a-day habit.

Day 820

Day 820 Record Keeping
Day 792 Fixed Meditation (31 min)
Day 666 Writing (2 rounds intense, 30 min each)
Day 206 Rowing (30 min, 5000 m)
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Eating
Day 44 Pantry Check (73)
Day 42 Recording
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Great sleep, good wakeup. I’m trying to stretch out my writing/work. Normally I do whatever I need to do, but if it’s difficult my minimal is 30 minutes. If I’m working on my blog or doing work, it usually stretches out longer. But since I’m working on a difficult project that’s quite painful, and I want to complete it faster, I’m trying to stretch it out.

I’m pushing my rowing by introducing HIITS. Since I had holes in my schedule last week (only did one HIIT instead of two, cut a few things on Thursday, and completely skipped almost everything on Friday)  it clearly hasn’t stabilized.

My pantry check is almost buzzing along nicely, my food recording is a superhabit, so I’m hoping it won’t mess anything up to stretch out writing.

It seems so little, writing 30 minutes a day and stretching it out to an hour. Especially since I wrote so much in November for NaNoWriMo, and because I’ve written so much in the past. But I want to really zone in on my weaknesses, and I believe this is how you do it - otherwise it just collapses.

I wish there was a way to measure the strength of the rate of progress in a skill just like I measure the strength of a habit. That way I’d know exactly how long to do a skill push before pushing more.

Finished NaNoWriMo! (Day 623)

Last night I won NaNoWriMo! I did a non fiction about….THIS project.

I by no means think I’m finished, but it is something I wanted to do to clarify what I’ve learned and figure out exactly what the weak points of my project are.

I did pretty good this year. Finishing early, I wrote 50,000 words in 10 days. Here are my stats:

I’ve got a lot of points that came up in writing - I’ll go threw them in future posts. Until then, I’ll be basking in my win, and trying to to think about editing it (for now)!

Day 622

Day 622 Record Keeping (44)
Day 591 Fixed Meditation (70)
Day 464 Writing (55)
Day 8 Rowing (54) 
Day 637 Eating (51)
Good sleep, great wakeup. Eating is really lagging and I haven’t been eating completely clean this past week. But I had already gone into this phase - working on NaNoWriMo, starting rowing, getting all my habits back on track - with the understanding that I’m not going to be too concerned with eating.