Day 1355 Record Keeping Day 1327 Fixed Meditation (visualizations) Day 1202 Writing (DID NOT DO) Day 741 Rowing (1 hour, walking) Day 482 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, back smash & hip stretch ) Day 132 Social Media (reading for future posts) -- Day 72 Meal Prep (DID NOT DO) -- XXEarly to Rise XXDay 510 Sleep Recording (DID NOT DO) XXDay 481 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO XXDay 319 Wakeup Alarm (DID NOT DO) – Ok sleep. Incredibly depleted. Still trying to get back on schedule. Nixing my entire Early to Rise project. I haven't done any of the elements in a while due to the massive amounts of interruptions in the last several months.
Day 1045 Record Keeping Day 1017 Fixed Meditation (18 min) Day 891 Writing (3/20 min) Day 431 Rowing (125 15 lb kb swings, 5x25, Russian style) Day 172 Mobility/Stretching (couch stretch) —– Eating Day 269 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO) Day 267 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 200 Water Day 200 Sleep Recording (11:50|1|8|8:40) Day 171 Bedtime Curfew Day 9 Wakeup Alarm 65 – Great sleep, good wakeup. Fixed meditation definitely needs to be extended - I feel like I’m just getting started when the alarm goes off for 10 minutes. That’s a good thing, especially in light of my extra time from waking up earlier. Writing went incredibly well today - managed to actually enact many of the strategies I wrote about in 12 Methods to Combat Procrastination in Habits. I did this despite wanting to procrastinate and immense amount.
I’m also at 200 days of recording my sleep patterns! It’s funny that 200 days doesn’t seem like anything now, hahahah.
Day 1032 Record Keeping Day 1004 Fixed Meditation (20 min) Day 878 Writing (DID NOT DO) Day 418 Rowing (125 kb swings, form, 5x25) Day 159 Mobility/Stretching (back smash and stretch) —– Eating Day 256 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO) Day 254 Food Recording (DID NOT DO) — Early to Rise Day 187 Water Day 187 Sleep Recording (1:50|2:20|10:20|11) Day 158 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO) – Good sleep, ok wakeup. Yesterday went to College Station to pay my respects to my departed friend Dan. Today was a lot of family stuff. I’m still glad I am able to complete at least the majority of my habits.
The Lynchpin for Becoming a Morning Person The past few days I’ve been setting an alarm 8 hours after I go to sleep. I’ve been getting up right before the alarm goes off. Several people, upon hearing of my project, have immediately mentioned their problems with becoming a morning person, and I think this might be a breakthrough moment. It’s not a particularly shocking move - it’s quite small. But I think building off those small habits - quantifying your sleep, slowly focusing on a curfew, and only THEN setting an alarm….that might well change things.
My idea for my next habit is simply setting my alarm 8 hours after I go to sleep. That would be an unchanging habit that once again focuses on the night before rather than the day of. The only thing in that family of small habits to “push” would be my curfew and the time between going to bed and going to sleep and waking up and getting out of bed.
Day 963 Record Keeping Weekend Habits (Travel Mode)
Day 349 Exercise (at least 2 hours walking) —– Eating Day 185 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 118 Water (DID NOT DO) Day 118 Sleep Recording (12:10|2:10|6|6:15) — Ok sleep, good wakeup. Again, it’s interesting this is something I’m unsure about. I think it’s a good thing - before there hasn’t really been a question of having excess ability to continue habits while traveling. I usually just couldn’t. Now i do, so choosing is difficult. Today I walked a lot. I ate ok, given my choices. I meditated and I recorded my sleep and eating. I could not do writing because of time, but I do think I could do my mobilization. But I’m wondering if this can be structured as another level to habits, beyond superhabits. Perhaps after habits become so unthinking, testing them requires pushing them to survive past massive disruption, like travel.
Day 872 Record Keeping Weekend Habits —– Eating Day 96 Pantry Check Day 94 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 27 Bacon & Water 80 SUPERHABIT Day 27 Sleep Recording 79 (2:30|11:20|12:40) SUPERHABIT – Good sleep, good wakeup. At a week of really high SRHIs for my small “early to rise” habits I’m ready to call both of them superhabits and stop taking the SRHI for them. It is interesting that they both got into the 70s at around 18 days, which is what Lally reported for her simplest habits - which I believe was also drinking a glass of water in the morning. It is curious that sleep recording is just a tinier bit behind my bacon and water habit. I think it has to do with the slight fuzziness of my implementation intention and how it’s a bit hard to record - recording when I go to sleep and go to bed is on a different day than when I get up - it straddles that awkward period.
Day 871 Record Keeping Day 843 Fixed Meditation (did not do) Day 717 Writing (did not do) Day 257 Rowing (2 hours, walking) —– Eating Day 95 Pantry Check Day 93 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 26 Bacon & Water 80 Day 26 Sleep Recording 78 (2|3:15|11:30|12:15) – Ok sleep, slow wakeup.
Day 870 Record Keeping Day 842 Fixed Meditation (30 min) Day 716 Writing (1 round/30 min) Day 256 Rowing (off) —– Eating Day 94 Pantry Check Day 92 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 25 Bacon & Water 80 Day 25 Sleep Recording 79 (12|12:30|11|12:45) – Ok sleep, slow wakeup.
Day 869 Record Keeping Day 841 Fixed Meditation (off) Day 715 Writing (off) Day 255 Rowing (light walking outside, stretches) —– Eating Day 93 Pantry Check Day 91 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 24 Bacon & Water 79 Day 24 Sleep Recording 79 (12:30|1|11|12) – Bad sleep, slow wakeup. Still dealing with quite a bit of pain - but on the mend.
Day 867 Record Keeping Day 839 Fixed Meditation (walking meditation) Day 713 Writing (1 round/30 min) Day 253 Rowing (walking, 30 min, pulled hip muscle) —– Eating Day 91 Pantry Check Day 89 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 22 Bacon & Water 80 Day 22 Sleep Recording 80 (3|3:50|7:30|11) – Great sleep, slow wakeup. Yesterday I ended up having a limp in my left hip which tightened painfully and has continued on to today. Walking loosens it up, and though trying to control the pain has given me ample meditation practice, it has really worn me out. Despite the pain, I ended up doing pretty much everything automatically, though at lower doses. It seems as though the initial hip pull has gotten much better, but it has tightened other compensatory muscles. Walking, stretching, and an ice compress seem to be working. Will be taking a week off of rowing. Early to rise habits have gotten very automatic, which I’m very proud of! Will have to strategize what my next habits or skill progressions are!
Day 866 Record Keeping Weekend Habits —– Eating Day 90 Pantry Check Day 88 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 21 Bacon & Water 78 Day 21 Sleep Recording 78 (2|2:30(4)|12|12:30) – Ok sleep, ok wakeup.
Day 865 Record Keeping Weekend Habits —– Eating Day 89 Pantry Check Day 87 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 20 Bacon & Water 79 Day 20 Sleep Recording 79 (2|1:30|1) – Horrible sleep, slow wakeup.
Day 864 Record Keeping Day 836 Fixed Meditation (Did not do) Day 710 Writing (Did not do) Day 250 Rowing (Did not do) —– Eating Day 88 Pantry Check Day 86 Food Recording — Early to Rise Day 19 Bacon & Water 76 Day 19 Sleep Recording 70 (2:20|7:30|11:30) – Great sleep, slow wakeup. Yesterday thought about taking today off because I’ve had an intense session and several weeks. Today, I’m totally exhausted - so I’m not doing my harder habits, and it feels like a really good idea.
Day 861 Record Keeping Day 833 Fixed Meditation (30 min) Day 707 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min) Day 247 Rowing (HIIT, 20 min, 30s:15s, 4100 m) —– Eating Day 85 Pantry Check Day 83 Recording — Early to Rise Day 16 Bacon & Water 74 Day 16 Sleep Recording 73 (3|10:30|11:30) — Horrible sleep, good wakeup.
Day 860 Record Keeping Day 832 Fixed Meditation (30 min) Day 706 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min) Day 246 Rowing (30 min biking, 30 min walking) —– Eating Day 84 Pantry Check Day 82 Recording — Early to Rise Day 15 Bacon & Water 71 Day 15 Sleep Recording 70 (11:50|12:15|11:30|12:30) — Great sleep, good wakeup. Woke up at 7:30, then fell back asleep. Should have just woke up anyways, but it worked out.
Barcelona Biking
Since it was such a gorgeous day, I decided to go to the beach and walk and bike instead of sticking to my strict habit of rowing.
The city bike share is really handy. Got my card which allows me to take a bike from one of the bike stands and cycle for 30 minutes.
It’s super handy because I don’t have to worry about having my bike stolen or finding a good place to chain my bike up.
I used to bike a lot when I was younger. It was one of the few things that was my go to for complete relaxation. The last 8 years I really haven’t gotten back into it - the last 2 years it was mostly because I was bouncing through cities and countries that often didn’t have such a bike programs and for some reason I didn’t feel like the short period of time justified purchasing a bike. I had a bike in Korea, but only at the very end of my time there, and it wasn’t the greatest city to bike through.
Since there’s also a great beach nearby with great accessibility, bike lanes, a boardwalk, etc, and it’s summer, the siren song of the outdoors is once again calling to me like it did so long ago. I want to be an outdoors person again - it’s one of the big identity changes I want to make with this project - so it makes sense to change up my long slow cardio days once in a while.
Slavish devotion to routines is very compelling to me because it works, and deviations have often resulted in extreme disruptions to my self improvement. For someone who has struggled for so long to make changes, and is finally doing it because of that devotion, the fear messing it all up is understandable.
But this project isn’t just about ruthlessly accomplishing skills and changes robotically; it’s also about using productivity to live life more fully.
I think both sides - adaptability to take advantage of opportunities like this and extreme regularity are needed for true success. It will be interesting to see where that balance lies.
Either way I had a fantastic time completing my “rowing” habit today (I’ll have to rename that again!).
Day 859 Record Keeping Weekend Habits —– Eating Day 83 Pantry Check Day 81 Recording — Early to Rise Day 14 Bacon & Water 72 Day 14 Sleep Recording 72 (2:30|3:30|9:30|11) — Good sleep, ok wakeup.
Day 858 Record Keeping Weekend Habits —– Eating Day 82 Pantry Check Day 80 Recording — Early to Rise Day 13 Bacon & Water 71 Day 13 Sleep Recording 69 (2:30|2:30/4|11|11:50) — Horrible sleep, bad wakeup.
Lydia’s Ideas on Weekend Habits Lydia has noticed that, without fail, I’m in an off mood every single weekend. I’ll nail my habits during the week, be completely pumped about my progress, but on the weekends I emotionally fall pretty flat on my face with fluctuating moods, light depression, a sense of tension and unease, etc.
Her theory: I’m doing weekend habits that trigger my mind to think I’m on a normal weekday, and then I’m subsequently NOT doing the rest of my habits. That part of the SRHI that says “It feels weird when I DON’T do the habit” is essentially being triggered.
Her suggestion is to come up with a completely different set or order of habits that triggers my mind into getting into the “ahhh, I’m relaxing” mode.
I’ve always had problems with this - it’s a key part of my anxiety issues - my mom and I are the few people I know who get nervous about NOT having something to worry about. So it might just be an inability to relax. But delving into behaviors that relax me are important to get into regardless of the root of the anxiety.
This is a really interesting conundrum because I want my identity habits to be my identity! That means I should be training them every single day.
At the same time, I’ve gone down the option of doing all of my habits every single day. I could see doing a modified habit schedule for the rest of them - a few minutes here and there just to check the boxes. But in the past this has lead to severe fatigue.
It’s something I’ll definitely have to delve into further. I’m also curious what it would be like to track my general emotional state for the day while I’m recording my eating. I tried this way back when with dynamic meditation to great effect, but it was way too detailed to continue. Perhaps a general daily emotional trend would help me pinpoint trends - because it seems as though disruptive emotions are one of the key markers for irregularities in habits.
Day 857 Record Keeping Day 829 Fixed Meditation (30 min) Day 703 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min) Day 243 Rowing (30 min, 5700 m) —– Eating Day 81 Pantry Check Day 79 Recording — Early to Rise Day 12 Bacon & Water 67 Day 12 Sleep Recording 65 (2|2:30/4|11|11:30) — Horrible sleep, surprisingly good wakeup. Had problems going to sleep - tried at 2 am, then again at 4 am. But it didn’t stop me from completing my routine smoothly.
Day 856 Record Keeping Day 828 Fixed Meditation (30 min) Day 702 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min) Day 242 Rowing (HIIT, 20 min, 30s:15s, 4100 m) —– Eating Day 80 Pantry Check Day 78 Recording — Early to Rise Day 11 Bacon & Water 65 Day 11 Sleep Recording 64 (2|2:30|11:30|12) — Ok sleep, good wakeup.
Day 855 Record Keeping Day 827 Fixed Meditation (30 min) Day 701 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min) Day 241 Rowing (30 min/ 5300 m ) —– Eating Day 79 Pantry Check Day 77 Recording — Early to Rise Day 10 Bacon & Water 64 Day 10 Sleep Recording 63 (2:45|2:45|10:50|11:50) — Bad sleep, slow wakeup.
Day 854 Record Keeping Day 826 Fixed Meditation (30 min) Day 700 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min) Day 240 Rowing (HIIT, 20 min, 30s:15s, 4100 m ) —– Eating Day 78 Pantry Check Day 76 Recording — Early to Rise Day 9 Bacon & Water 61 Day 9 Sleep Recording 60 (1:15|1:50|11:15|11:50) — Good sleep, good wakeup. Still under the weather, but managed to do my entire routine without flinching, including the most brutal HIIT, 30 seconds on and only 15 minutes off for 20 minutes. AND…it’s DAY 700 of my writing habit!
