Day 1245 & Travel Sandbagging Experiment #2
Day 1245 Record Keeping
Day 1217 Fixed Meditation (20 min)
Day 1092 Writing (4 Pomodoros, hard)
Day 631 Rowing (40 min, 5700 m)
Day 372 Mobility/Stretching (15 min, hip stretch & back smash)
Day 22 Social Media (30 min, SRHI = 71)
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Day 54 Monday Meal Prep (DID NOT FULLY DO - 3 meals planned, groceries done)
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Early to Rise
Day 400 Sleep Recording (3|3:15|11:50|1)
Day 371 Bedtime Curfew
Day 209 Wakeup Alarm
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Ok sleep. Ran out of time to finish up my full meal prep, but will do so tomorrow. Also, Social Media looks like it may have it full habituation. We'll see in the next week!
Travel Sandbagging Experiment # 2
Last September I attempted an experiment using a technique I've called Sandbagging - artificially loading myself in order to lighten the load abruptly to simulate greater control. An example of this would be doing 3 habits, and when the going gets tough, just quitting two of them. The theory is that the first one will sail freely upwards (like sandbags on a hot air balloon) easily into full habituation.
This experiment involved Travel. In "Experiment on Sandbagging and Travel: Part I and Part II" I upped all my daily minimums for habits during the week before. According to one of my theories, Delayed Endurance Drain (written about in "Delayed Onset Willpower/Endurance Drain") the load of stress on the system manifests itself about a week later with ego-depletion and negative emotions. Do more this week and it's going to feel really rough next week. The theory was that if I stressed myself out through working hard a week before travel, I'd be expecting a hard load during travel, where I'd drop everything to really low minimums. Ideally, this would functionally raise self control levels, allowing me to nail my habits on the go, rather than just opting out of them and picking them up when I get back home.
It worked - though, whether it was because of the technique or because I'm just better at self discipline is anyone's guess. Still, I'm gong to try it again as I have about a week of travel through Southern France starting this Friday. It's not for work, and it's going to be really relaxed since Lydia and I are traveling with another remote worker who needs to put in 8 hours a day.
For me right now, the Holy Grail of behavioral change lies in adherence to routines despite massive disruptions, like travel. Happily, I do enough travel to test techniques like this out, so we'll see if it works again!