Day 1536

Day 1536 Record Keeping
Day 1507 Fixed Meditation (10 min, samatha)
Day 1382 Writing (6, 20 min Pomodoros)
Day 921 Rowing (walking, 35 min)
Day 662 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, foot work)
–
Great sleep. In New Mexico. Things have been pretty crazy here, lot's of people gathered, so my habits have been scattered. Nevertheless, I'm doing some really good work with writing in particular. I've been meditating every day. Naturally eating has been messed up, but I'm not too concerned, since it's still quite easy in Houston. I will have to make a decision on what to do for exercise. Rowing clearly didn't work as well as it should have, so I'm definitely going to have to use a cross training approach. Unfortunately mobility is directly tied to exercise, so when there's in uncertainty in exercising, mobility goes down the tube.

Day 1350 & Finally Back Home!

Day 1350 Record Keeping
Day 1322 Fixed Meditation (Metta)
Day 1197 Writing (Misc small tasks)
Day 736 Rowing (50 min, walking)
Day 477 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
Day 127 Social Media (Misc reading)
--
Early to Rise
Day 505 Sleep Recording  (DID NOT DO)
Day 476 Bedtime Curfew
Day 314 Wakeup Alarm (DID NOT DO)
–
Great sleep. 

Finally Back Home!
I haven't been in my apartment for more than 2 weeks since July. This trip, two weeks after Iceland, we hit Chicago, Albuquerque, Kona, Hilo, Honolulu, Kauaii, and Houston. I'm utterly exhausted. I got sick twice, my computer died, and I thought I lost my proposal, which was around 9 months of work (happily I got it back). 

Looking back over my notes I'm surprised at how much I've managed to do in regards to my habits. It's nowhere near perfect - I have huge gaps, but whenever I had time, I was working, meditating, mobilizing, and when I had a set amount of time not traveling I even did my meal prep. This was unthinkable even last year.

Somewhere along the way, I also started to get a better feel for writing. The Pomodoros, the idea of being able to fit in a quick session here and there – and the new format I have to deal with multiple rewrites – have done wonders for me. In addition, the new format for habits I alluded to in a previous post (I'm getting around to a bigger post on it) seems to be helping everything move along.

I have some more travel coming up, but thankfully I'll have a few months before then. I'm not back to my usual regularity, but I'm bouncing back!

Day 1314 - Back from Travels, Colds, and Fried Computers

Day 1314 Record Keeping
Day 1286 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 1161 Writing (1 Pomodoro, a lot of misc work)
Day 700 Rowing (30 min, walking)
Day 441 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
Day 91 Social Media (60 min, SRHI = 59)
—
Day 64 Monday Meal Prep (bought salads for the week)
--
Early to Rise
Day 469 Sleep Recording  (DID NOT DO)
Day 440 Bedtime Curfew
Day 278 Wakeup Alarm (DID NOT DO)
–
Good sleep. 

In the last few months I road tripped through Southern France, camped all over Iceland, got a horrible cold that refused to quit, traveled to a conference in Chicago where my computer died, and am now in Albuquerque, where I somehow caught a second cold.  This is quite a huge chunk of time gone from the project, but today I managed to get back into it, and I have a new strategy that I'll be describing shortly.

 

Day 1078 & Resetting Sleep After Jet Lag

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)
—–
Eating
Day 302 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 300 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
Day 30 Sunday Meal Prep 71 (retroactive from Sunday)
—
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
–
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 1060

Day 1060 Record Keeping
Day 1032 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 906 Writing (6/20 min)
Day 446 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 187 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
—–
Eating
Day 284 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 282 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 215 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 215 Sleep Recording  (11:50|12:30|8:30|9)
Day 186 Bedtime Curfew
Day 24 Wakeup Alarm 74
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. Still in travel mode. Excellent work, I think I’ve made a lot of progress in writing. Some things here while in another location aren’t quite do-able because I’m on someone else’s time table, but what I can do I’m getting done. Time zone switch has not adversely affected my waking up. I leave for Spain tomorrow, which is a really difficult time zone switch.

Day 1059

Day 1059 Record Keeping
Day 1031 Fixed Meditation (20 min)
Day 905 Writing (many rounds, on deadline)
Day 445 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 186 Mobility/Stretching (back smash)
—–
Eating
Day 283 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 281 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 214 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 214 Sleep Recording  (12:20|12:35|8|8:30)
Day 185 Bedtime Curfew
Day 23 Wakeup Alarm 75
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. Horrendously depressed, but continued to do all the habits I could do. Traveled yesterday, so didn’t record, but still managed to do my mobility, meditation, water, sleep recording, bedtime curfew, and wakeup alarm. Not bad.

Day 1050

Day 1050 Record Keeping
Day 1022 Fixed Meditation (5 min)
Day 896 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 436 Rowing (bike ride)
Day 177 Mobility/Stretching (couch stretch)
—–
Eating
Day 274 Pantry Check (DiD NOT DO)
Day 272 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 205 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 205 Sleep Recording  (11:40|12:45|7:40|8:20)
Day 176 Bedtime Curfew
Day 14 Wakeup Alarm 68
–
Bad sleep, good wakeup. Traveled to Houston today. Did my meditation, albeit shortened, on the plane. Went on a lovely bike ride, stretched.  I’m very curious to see just how ingrained this wakeup alarm thing is when switching time zones and locations. As usual I felt so invigorated and relaxed after my bike ride. It really got me thinking about the value of self care, doing activities that fill me with energy, and of the importance of expanding base resources - All variables I have not taken seriously in this project.

Day 966

Day 966 Record Keeping
(Travel Mode)

Day 352 Exercise (all day walking and hiking)
—–
Eating
Day 188 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 121 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 121 Sleep Recording (12|12:45|10|10:15)
—
Fantastic sleep, good wakeup. Did quite a lot of meditation while in transit - I should be recording this. I also should be doing my mobilization, since it only takes 4 minutes to do. I also need to decide if I’m going to be crazy and start my flossing habit while traveling.

Spent all day hiking and walking today on a day trip to Montserrat, and got to tour the Benedictine Abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat. Really beautiful place, and I just learned it was connected to the old Arthurian legends as the resting place of the Holy Grail.

Here’s a pic from today.


Day 965 & Finished Book Proposal

Day 965 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits (Travel Mode)

Day 351 Exercise (walking tour)
—–
Eating
Day 187 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 120 Water
Day 120 Sleep Recording (1|8:30|)
—
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 963 & Beyond Superhabits (Through Travel)

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 962

Day 962 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits (Travel Mode)

Day 348 Exercise (4.5 hours walking)
—–
Eating
Day 184 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 117 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 117 Sleep Recording (12:10|2:10|6|6:15)
–
Horrible sleep. Started travel stuff - right now visitors arrived in town, but still in Barcelona. I decided I would record Rowing (Now updated to Exercise), food recording, MAYBE water, and sleep recording. Was contemplating continuing my bedtime curfew - though for this last one it doesn’t really matter or count, since when I travel I usually go to bed quite early. It’s not the habit I wish to establish - the habit is more accurately “getting up early when I’m in ‘normal mode’”. And that’s an important distinction.

I am still thinking about beginning flossing while I’m in “travel mode” - will blog on this later in the week.