Day 1523

Day 1523 Record Keeping
Day 1494 Fixed Meditation (15 min, vipassana)
Day 1369 Writing (6 20 min Pomodoros)
Day 908 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 649 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
–
Great sleep. Very depleted today. Really trying to push writing. It's interesting that when I do any task that stretches my skill, my attention almost uniformly gives out at 13 minutes. It's very consistent. I'm trying to stretch out meditation just by 5 minutes. I got an email from the Finder's Course stating that it was the last course that was going to be personally handled by Dr. Jeffery Martin - he's handing it over to his senior Phd student. I really want to do the course, but at 2 hours of meditation at the minimum, I just don't think it's feasible at my volume, especially with trying to push writing. I have however been trying to get my father to do it, since he regularly meditates at least an hour a day and is newly retired. 

Day 1516 - Moved Back to the States

Day 1516 Record Keeping
Day 1487 Fixed Meditation (10 min, vipassana)
Day 1362 Writing (7 13 min Pomodoros)
Day 901 Rowing (35 min walk)
Day 642 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
Day 292 Social Media (STOPPED)XX
–
Ok sleep. 

Moved back to the States.

It's been less than 2 weeks. I've surprised myself being pretty consistent with meditating and writing a lot, despite not recording it. Since I had to sell my rower in Spain (along with everything else), rowing has to officially change. Right now I'm just trying to get up to walking, biking, and maybe some kayaking. It's been hard - we missed one of our flights back and were "only 15 hours late arriving" (as my mother said). This resulted in some pretty massive jet lag. I also got sick for what seemed like the 10th time this year. 

This is a huge transition for me, the end of a full decade of living abroad as an expat.  What with all the change, I haven't had time to really think what I want my workout regiment to be. I'm seriously considering GMB Fitness, an excellent bodyweight program Lydia does with progressions. The more I hear about it the more impressed I am. 

I'm still contemplating reinstating my social media habit. I've put it on hold after reading Cal Newport's book on Deep Work. I definitely want to hold off on it until I get my proposal in. My procrastination protocol is still working like a charm even in this, the hardest writing assignment I've ever had.

One of the biggest reasons we came back was hitting a wall with mastering eating. Eating is a real lynchpin habit to me - it governs energy, aesthetics, health, and is a stepping off point for a lot of other skills I'd like to master.  But in Spain, it hit a wall - there wasn't enough space to store premade meals. Our meal prep was contingent on going to 3 or 4 stores to get ingredients. And that didn't even count for all lunches or any dinners. One of our main schemes with coming back to the States was the knowledge that it would be easier here.

And it has. The last week we went to the store, and bought all ingredients for a week. Easily. Hand chopping salads? Why bother, when they come in bags! You don't even need to zoodle your own veggie, they come pre zoodled! Making lunches has been utterly effortless, exactly what I want self change to be. And Lydia is going further with it. She wants to cook through paleo cookbooks and have a randomized list for dinners, so even the act of making a menu doesn't even come up at all!

I'm beginning to think that moving back was a really good decision strategically. Sure it's definitely easy to lose it with all the easy access to delicious food. But it's also really easy to make changes. I'll miss Spain but right now I think it's already paying off. 

Day 1469 & Testing Cal Newport's Advice

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)
–
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 - Back from Travel and Guests

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
–
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.

Day 1411 & Happy New Year!

Day 1411 Record Keeping
Day 1383 Fixed Meditation (10 min, vipassana/gratitude)
Day 1258 Writing (3, 13-min pomodoros)
Day 797 Rowing (10 min/ 1700 m)
Day 538 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
Day 188 Social Media (all tweets for week, 53 min)
–
Bad sleep. Back from a long much needed break. I attempted to push my writing to finish my proposal before the new year. I failed. I found it incredibly difficult, but, just like my previous year's NaNoWriMo win in 5 days, I found shortening my Pomodoros to 13 minutes much more efficient. It's bizarre, but I would stress out all day about doing 20 or 30 min sessions, and fail to do anything through phenomenal procrastination.

Nevertheless, 13 minutes for some reason was low enough for me to get started and almost addicting. I continued to do more and more as I got into the rhythm of 13 minute sets, often not taking a break, as Pomodoros usually call for. 

I wonder if this could be a potential method for easing into particularly difficult skill pushes...

I want to really spend more time focusing on writing, in what productivity blogger and author Cal Newport calls Deep Work. I'm now reading his book –  Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – which I find quite fascinating.

I'll be doing a 2017 year in review shortly, as well as sharing some thoughts in parallel skill pushes. 

Week Off

The last several weeks have been pretty horrible. A tangled web of bad sleep, low energy, low willpower, and an immense amount of depression have forced me to admit I need some time off. 

If it was any one thing, I think I could work through it. But lack of sleep prevents me from either getting things done promptly or getting up with enough time to get out. This is especially problematic since I think a part of the reason I’m having such issues is due to the lack of sunlight in my apartment.

My HIIT progression has made me quite exhausted, but not as much so as all I’ve been doing to learn about book publishing. And although I have a lot of specific experiments to figure out my sleeping problem and breaking through my depression through pushing meditation, it’s a lot. 

Sleep looks like it will require a metric that incorporates a sleep scale (sleep efficiency and sleep quality) in order to test out specific variables. Depression will involve a modified form of my old dynamic meditation. Both involve extra recording. And I still have my Gotham course, writing assignments, and a looming trip back home.

So, I’m going to do a bit of self care. Today I walked around in the sun, watched stupid tv, and read and learned about random things I’ve been pushing off that have nothing to do with work.

I just finished reading Cal Newport’s book Deep Work. One of the points that stuck with me was the importance placed on actions in the off time - how to stop thinking about work and how to take off in order to come back with renewed vigor. I acknowledge its importance but I absolutely HATE the idea of taking off. Time is a-wastin’, and I always feel like I should have mastered half of this stuff years ago - I’m way too impatient to begin more advanced practices.

But, now, at the end of my first day off, I’m already feeling incredibly relaxed. The delta change is incredible, enough to make me think that Cal’s on to something here.