Day 1155 & A Thousand Days of Writing!

Day 1155 Record Keeping
Day 1127 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 1001 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 541 Rowing (rowing, 30 min/4100 m)
Day 282 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
—
Early to Rise
Day 310 Sleep Recording  (1|3|10:30|1:20)
Day 281 Bedtime Curfew 
Day 119 Wakeup Alarm
–
Good sleep. Exhausted and depleted today. Passed 1,000 Days of Writing!!!! My writing habit may have gone through its ups and downs (and I definitely messed up and didn’t do it today) but I’m still going for it. 

Day 1150

Day 1150 Record Keeping
Day 1122 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 996 Writing (5 rounds/15 min)
Day 536 Rowing (rowing, 30 min/4200 m)
Day 277 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
—
Early to Rise
Day 305 Sleep Recording  (5:40|10:30|1)
Day 276 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO)
Day 114 Wakeup Alarm
–
Great sleep. Inverted habit sequence really worked. Excellent work with writing today.

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 1045 & 200 Days of Sleep Recording!!!

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 1009 & NANOWRIMO 2016 WIN

Day 1009 Record Keeping
Day 981 Fixed Meditation (5 min)
Day 855 Writing (NaNoWriMo Complete - 20,000 words today!!!)
Day 395 Rowing (biked for about 20 minutes)
Day 136 Mobility/Stretching (couch stretch, 1 min each side)
—–
Eating
Day 233 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 231 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 164 Water
Day 164 Sleep Recording  (12:40|2:11|10:10|10:20)
Day 135 Bedtime Curfew 77
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. 

image

Nailed NaNoWriMo in a personal record breaking 5 days. Because of various disruptions (all good) I had to and did write half of it today. 20,000 words. I found that a modified Pomodoro really helped a lot, and really just starting the timer even when I wasn’t ready. I have a theory on this - it seems to work really well for me in other habits, like mobilization and meditation - otherwise there’s a sort of paralysis that occurs because of over thinking it. I think I’m so indoctrinated into thinking that any one instance has to be superb, that I’m not getting on a visceral level that consistency more than covers for it. 

I have a bunch of notes on this, and I’ll post a big article on the fear of starting a task - especially one like writing that has so much fear embedded within it. Lydia asked me if I think it’ll transfer to real work - and I think it will to a certain extent - I think my real work involves a combination of this type of first draft writing, editing, and research, and doing them all seamlessly takes a bit of planning. 

That’s all for another day - I intend to spend the rest of today basking in my win!

Day 881 & Entering and Conquering “The Monastery”

Day 881 Record Keeping
Day 853 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 727 Writing (5/30 min)
Day 267 Rowing (10 min/1500 m)
Day 8 Mobility/Stretching 46 (hip opener, pelvic reset)
—–
Eating
Day 105 Pantry Check
Day 103 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 36 Bacon & Water
Day 36 Sleep Recording (11:40|12|10:40|11:20)
Day 8 Bedtime Curfew 37
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. 

Entering and Conquering “The Monastery”

I usually do not talk about the specifics of skill progressions, but that might be something I should change. The last 2 months or so I’ve been on a specific phase in my book proposal involving chapter summaries. I’ve been at a loss on how to do them, because every time I do I end up reworking all of it. Or I get confused and read more about how to do it. I’ve taken a few courses, read a book on plot and structure, and have really gotten nowhere. It all hit a breaking point last week when I had several critical failures to start my writing habit at all.

Some of the classes I’ve been taking are from Holly Lisle, a fantastic resource on the art of writing. She’s one of a handful of people I refer to in my own head as Hidden Progression Masters, people who have dissected and demystified the process of mastering a skill and describe learning it progressively in a cogent manner. Why “hidden”? Because they’re often only talked about in the contexts of specialized groups of people, mentioned in subreddits, or talked about in forums dedicated to that particular craft.

In one of her courses she talks about my particular problem when reworking a book. Her solution is called The Monastery, where you enter a period of contemplation with no notes with only your muse to guide you. She has specifics in her course (How to Revise Your Novel) which I will not go into, but Lydia recently entered and emerged from it with a reworking of her book. I skeptically did the same, and I’ve got to say, it was terrifying. I had to directly face my fears, but I came out with a solid knowledge of what I want my book to look like.

It also appears to have my writing habit back on track!

Check out her site for other classes, some are only available a few times a year.

Day 854

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!

Day 814

Day 814 Record Keeping
Day 786 Fixed Meditation (did not do)
Day 660 Writing
Day 200 Rowing (did not do )
—–
Eating
Day 38 Pantry Check (69)
Day 36 Recording (80)
—–
Good sleep, good but tired wakeup. This was yet another day where I was utterly depleted. Did amazing amazing work in writing today despite dragging myself to my work desk and forcing myself to work. I feel like I’ve been working a lot on this particular project to no avail. But today I’m really close to finishing and it sounds worlds better than it did before. By my calculations I’ve honed roughly 10,000 words of brainstorming and writing down into 190 words. It’s the hardest bit of writing I’ve done, but I’ve managed to do it because I’ve sat at my desk and forced myself to work at it through this habit every day for only 30 minutes at a time.

There are times when I wonder if I’m making the right decision by this steady yet small approach. Today it feels vindicated.

Was super tired and Lydia suggested I take a day off from rowing. I think it was needed, but it also resulted in me not doing my meditation. 

I think it was a good decision. I definitely had more of a lighter day mentally and had the energy to do some intense cleaning and cooking. 

Very close to a superhabit with food recording. Will have to brainstorm what other habits it’s time to add.

Day 457

Day 457 Record Keeping
Day 426 Fixed Meditation
Day 372 Bodyweight Exercise (3 bridges)
Day 299 Writing (research, 3 articles, 1 hour)
Day 472 Eating (64)
Day 107 Dynamic Meditation = 79 (20 min)
Day 54 Marketing = 69 (actionable task)
Good sleep, good wakeup. Yesterday had a bout of complete depletion. Today reversed order and worked on my big writing push first, which was much better. Still feeling that restlessness and depression, but I think that’s pretty normal when starting to really push something.

Dynamic Meditation Notes (20 minutes):
x3 fidgeting, minor

Writing (3 articles in 1 hour):
-Started in the morning with this.
-things progressed faster

Day 343

Day 343 Record Keeping
Day 312 Fixed Meditation
Day 258 Bodyweight Exercise (2 wall walk down bridges - incomplete)
Day 185 Writing (323 words)
Day 358 Eating = 72
Day 115 Work = 47
Great sleep, great wakeup. Finally back from 3 back-to-back travels. Actually pretty solid generally speaking with eating considering I was really sick as well as constantly traveling. Work was incredibly hard to get back into. Although I had problems recording my habits, I did do them most days unless I just had absolutely no time. I was concerned about my writing habit since I just didn’t have much time to do it - luckily the fluidity of writing is still back in a subjective way.

Day 310, Tabata, and Write Great Fiction Series

Day 310 Record Keeping
Day 279 Fixed Meditation 
Day 225 Bodyweight Exercise  (4 Tabata cycles - squats/mountain climbers/jump lunges)
Day 152 Writing (100 words and several writing exercises)
Day 325 Eating = 65
Day 82 Work = 54
Great sleep, great wakeup. 

Tabatas
I wanted to include more of a cardio element for the regimentation of my bodyweight exercise habit. Though the burpees I put in the mix are great, it does put a lot of emphasis on my arms. An emphasis that I already have what with my pushup progression, gripping a pole for dragon flags, and lifting up my body for bridges. 

It’s time to start introducing more lower body exercises.

I figured I’d start by Tabatas. Tabatas are a form of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) where you cycle from short bursts of activity with very short intervals of rest. The cycles vary, but for most it’s 20 seconds of activity followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times.

Today I used a free app - “Workout Stopwatch Timer” which seemed to work pretty well. 

It is pretty basic, but I like basic. I alternated between lower body exercises - stairclimbers, air squats, and jumping lunges. It completely wore me out after only 4 cycles. I’ll definitely have to work up to the full 8! 

It’s a good intro to lower body exercise. When I was in Spain my quads got noticeably bigger and toned because I was taking the stairs 2 at a time anytime I needed to get up to my third story apartment. Since leaving my strength has normalized, so I’ll need to start doing a squat progression soon.

Write Great Fiction Series
Plateauing is a big problem in self improvement. And though I am progressing solidly in my writing habit, I do want to improve not only the amount I write, but the quality.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who have writing aspirations. I always say that the key is to not just think of it as an artistic creative free spirited channeling of yourself on paper - it’s also a highly technical skill. 

This is fantastic for me - it allows you to rest on something that can be improved rather than “working” on a skill that’s completely vague. In that vein, I’ve realized that I don’t really workout my skill of writing, and I want that to change - I want it to be a part of my routine.

So I’ve started working on Writer’s Digest Write Great Fiction Series. It came highly recommended because it describes specific aspects of writing to work on with exercises - exactly what I need. I’ve begun working on the first book in the series that I got my hands on - Plot and Structure. My thoughts are to do this at least once a week.

Day 293 & Writing Superhabit!

Day 293 Record Keeping
Day 262 Fixed Meditation 
Day 208 Bodyweight Exercise  (2x10 25 lb KB swings, 2x5 burpees, superseted)
Day 135 Writing = 82 (794 words)
Day 308 Eating = 67
Day 65 Work = 65
Great sleep, great wakeup. Yesterday’s laps was more due to an extended errand I had to run - all habits were done except for work and recording….and that’s something I need to analyze a bit because I tend to wait until I’ve finished work to record.

Writing Superhabit
It’s been 8 days consecutively above 80 on the SRHI, and about 3 weeks on and off at around that same number. I will no longer be taking and recording the SRHI for writing.

In a previous post I wondered if I should wait to see how fluid it is to write something I would actually publish. The past few weeks I’ve been writing my NaNoWriMo book and editing. My concern was whether or not the fear factor of starting a for-work article would gunk up the mechanism - the idea being that the greater the habituation the less fear is involved in the habit.

Well, today I did just such an article and I had absolutely no problem - it was completely fluid. I wrote 794 words like it was nothing. Fantastic! I’m grinning looking back at the beginning when I was trying to get 50 words down. TinyHabits really do work!

It also gave me a clearer idea of how the work habit should progress - once I’m done with my current project of editing, I want to get into the habit of alternating with days of writing and days of editing and polishing, and throw in a day of pitching. This will completely nail my freelance writing life.

As someone who has struggled for a long time with this - it’s fantastic. The ability to just write, and leave polishing for the next day is incredibly freeing. I know I’m good at editing and rearranging structure to get a good product out, so it’s easier to get my raw thoughts out. 

I’m really looking forward to progressing in this, and I feel this is a huge accomplishment! It will allow me to turn my full attention to nailing eating and my work habit.

Day 288

Day 288 Record Keeping
Day 257 Fixed Meditation 
Day 203 Bodyweight Exercise  (3 bridges, 3 dragon flag attempts)
Day 130 Writing = 81 (editing meditation book)
Day 303 Eating = 62
Day 60 Work = 65
Great sleep, great wakeup. Work habit flowed better last couple of days, especially today. I really feel so much better getting up early like I did today - waking up early has to be a habit I need to nail one of these days.

Day 287 & The Holiday Effect, Cont.

Day 287 Record Keeping
Day 256 Fixed Meditation 
Day 202 Bodyweight Exercise  (2x8 uneven pushups, 2x8 35lb rows)
Day 129 Writing = 81 (editing meditation book)
Day 302 Eating = 63
Day 59 Work = 64
Great sleep, great wakeup. 

Holiday Effect, Continued
Yesterday night, my mom said my dad wanted to go out.  I thought to myself “great, this is an opportunity where I can test my holiday protocol.”

Pizza. He wanted pizza.

I did good up to a point. I ate my meal, my dad got pizza, I even toasted it up for him. He got some wine which he shared with me. Great.

After having a long conversation, I had a bit of a personal scare, so my emotions were all over the place. Then I toasted up some of my dad’s leftover pizza and ate it all. Then I snacked on cashews - no problem, but then I ate some Doritos, finishing a bag.

So not so good when it all comes down to it.

Here’s what went wrong:
Once I learned that there was going to be a situation, I need to immediately do my implementation intention AND at least read through my mental contrasting. I should also do the whole Flash Diet thingy and take pics of the food I eat.

I did none of those things - I was distracted with work or something and didn’t immediately do it, so the next thing I knew the pizza had arrived and I was amidst the situation without proper preparation.

So this is good - I know that something works, the time I did it, it worked. The time I didn’t, it didn’t.

So I’m going to  make this an official thing - throughout the holiday season, I’ll be doing a Holiday Effect Project just like my No Bread Challenge. I’ll be posting on the blog about avoiding such temptations in an attempt to have a solid set of protocols and know what works and what doesn’t while navigating this discipline-tricky time of year.

Day 285 & Breakdown of Discipline with Friends

Day 285 Record Keeping
Day 254 Fixed Meditation 
Day 200 Bodyweight Exercise  (stretching)
Day 127 Writing = 82 (editing meditation book)
Day 300 Eating = 57
Day 57 Work = 52
Good sleep, slow wakeup. 

Breakdown of Discipline with Friends
The last few days I had the great opportunity to visit friends I haven’t seen in a while. Discipline, of course, went down hill.

I drank more than my maximum - though to be fair, it wasn’t that much more. The first day, my food control was great, but the next two days it went completely out the window.

And on top of this, 2 days of recording went out the window - though surprisingly, I did almost everything else.

Looking back, my self discipline has improved - BUT my question is - what can I do to make it even better?

I believe that implementation intention is a fantastic way to deal with this - I need to get into the habit of writing down an implementation whenever I’m in a situation where I might feel compromised.

I am all about experiencing life and friendship to the fullest - in fact, a huge part of this project is to do just that - to master skills and habits so that I can go back into the world stronger that I was before.

But eating right isn’t an impediment to that. I could have easily gotten something at these restaurants that was a solid option. Occasionally sharing some drinks with friends, great. But does one less drink really make a difference in the bonding process? No - in fact, though it’s harder, it actually helps it because I can ask the right questions with greater control.

Before this year, I would be so down on myself for these mistakes - I’d be berating myself and feel bad for the next few days. What my meditation has taught me is that this is a waste of energy, and I will bring all my skills to bear to not waste a moment to negative emotion.

I know what I did right. I know what I did wrong. And I know how to improve. Nothing else is important, this will help me get better without dragging me down.