Day 1153 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits
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Eating Habits
Day 41 Meal Prep Sunday (VERY fast, back on track)
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Early to Rise
Day 308 Sleep Recording (3:30|1:30|2)
Day 279 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO)
Day 117 Wakeup Alarm
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Good sleep. Very tired, very depressed. I’m guessing this has more to do with the remnants of jet lag than anything else. Despite the emotions, Sunday Meal Prep occurred like clockwork.
Day 1078 Record Keeping
Day 1050 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 924 Writing (2/13 min, draft)
Day 464 Rowing (HIIT, 15s:60s, 14 min, 2500 m)
Day 205 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch, back smash)
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Eating
Day 302 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 300 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
Day 30 Sunday Meal Prep 71 (retroactive from Sunday)
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Early to Rise
Day 233 Water
Day 233 Sleep Recording (12:30|12:50|2|3)
Day 204 Bedtime Curfew
Day 42 Wakeup Alarm 80
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Ok sleep, great wakeup. Woke up again at 3 am. I really need to learn how I can
Reset Sleep After Jet Lag
I think the biggest problem with resetting sleep has to do with my relationship with writing. Writing is my biggest challenge. When I started out seriously writing, I got more sleep because if I was tired at all there was no way I could choose the words I needed carefully and really think. It wasn’t like a regular job where people regularly show up with half a mind. As a writer I have to be totally alert and rested, and I can barely make it through when I’m at 100%.
I’m beginning to see that as the old way of doing writing. Rather than thinking of writing as a super cerebral perfect choosing of poetic words emphasizing specific turns of speech from the get-go, my new model of writing has to do with several passes done at a rather low thinking level in order to avoid perfectionism and resulting writer’s block.
Thinking less is actually pretty helpful for busting out a rough draft. Thinking less is really helpful for removing The Editor mentality when scamping for sentence level rewriters. James Patterson’s idea of progressing quickly through many rewrites to prevent getting stuck at any one point backs this point up. It switches the whole endeavor to a more mechanistic, workflow driven emphasis that has less to do with one specific success or mistake. I like it.
It also means that I should at least be able to force myself to get up earlier, for at least a reset. Unfortunately I’ve been doing my sleeping one way for quite a long time, so in the moment I naturally default to habitual behavior. Time to change!
Day 1000 Record Keeping
Day 972 Fixed Meditation (DID NOT DO)
Day 846 Writing (1 round/30)
Day 386 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 127 Mobility/Stretching (neck stretch with mom)
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Eating
Day 224 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 222 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
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Early to Rise
Day 155 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 155 Sleep Recording (DID NOT DO)
Day 126 Bedtime Curfew 66
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Great sleep. Traveled back home to Texas, arrived over the weekend. It’s been a 1,000 days of recording! I’m very proud, and very bitter.
I’ve been trying to get my mom to start recording as a base for a solid meditation habit - yesterday I emphasized creating a solid recording habit, because, oddly enough, just recording your recording makes a huge difference in sticking to any routine. So more than anything, I have to take pride in that - that even if today’s behaviors weren’t all accomplished, despite a lot of travel and a lot of interruptions, I recorded.
But I wanted my 1000th day to be smooth - a perfect day of a perfect set of flowing routines. Today was not that. I had difficulty starting my writing, I didn’t have time to exercise. Pantry check, food recording, water, sleep recording - all of that was thrown out of joint today. And the jet lag has made everything just a hair more difficult to focus on and do.
The day started well enough - traveling this direction naturally has me up early. But I wanted to talk to my mom, so I was less focused. I offered to drive her downtown, which took hours (since it’s Houston), and I hung out at the kitchen table afterwards, inviting a great conversation with my dad - to the detriment of my writing.
I don’t regret those things. And perhaps that’s what I learned the most, through the anger at the inability to force circumstances towards habit completion: That these routines are my tool - to be used, or, like today, to be dropped for greater goals - like reconnecting with people after a year and a half abroad.
My mom said that being driven was really appreciated; it relaxed her on a day when she needed it. That’s got to count for something.