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)
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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 1525

Day 1525 Record Keeping
Day 1496 Fixed Meditation (15 min, metta)
Day 1371 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 910 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 651 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
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Great sleep. Did all my habits yesterday, but had a busy day, getting home really late, so did not record. Today I had a lot of appointments to to view houses downtown, so didn't end up able to do any work or "rowing". I think the issue is that I'm trying to push my writing, so I don't have a set cut off point after which I record. So recording just gets done at the very end of the day with no trigger. 

A lot of self help books talk about having a "before you go to bed" ritual, but it seems to be a difficult thing behaviorally because there's no set event to kick off the routines. Short of having an alarm, I really don't see a way to kick it off, unlike events during the day - waking up, taking a shower, etc). That's something I need to solve, because I do believe a bedtime ritual is important, and has great potential to double up on habits.

Anyway, I think these gaps and interruptions are going to occur in the first few months being back in the States what with getting settled.

Day 1523

Day 1523 Record Keeping
Day 1494 Fixed Meditation (15 min, vipassana)
Day 1369 Writing (6 20 min Pomodoros)
Day 908 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 649 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
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Great sleep. Very depleted today. Really trying to push writing. It's interesting that when I do any task that stretches my skill, my attention almost uniformly gives out at 13 minutes. It's very consistent. I'm trying to stretch out meditation just by 5 minutes. I got an email from the Finder's Course stating that it was the last course that was going to be personally handled by Dr. Jeffery Martin - he's handing it over to his senior Phd student. I really want to do the course, but at 2 hours of meditation at the minimum, I just don't think it's feasible at my volume, especially with trying to push writing. I have however been trying to get my father to do it, since he regularly meditates at least an hour a day and is newly retired. 

Day 1519

Day 1519 Record Keeping
Day 1490 Fixed Meditation (10 min, single pointed)
Day 1365 Writing (3 25 min Pomodoros)
Day 904 Rowing (1 hour 20 min walk)
Day 645 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, foot work)
–
Great sleep. Missed recording yesterday despite doing most of my habits. Oh well, I'm surprised I haven't missed more lately. Back to single pointed meditation. Practiced getting into and out of jhana for 10 minutes, which was incredibly difficult. I find that the exercises that I really need to do in any area - like working on the hardest part of a song in music - is kind've like nails on a chalkboard. It's not that the practice is difficult, it's forcing yourself to do it. But once you do, I feel that advancement occurs quicker. At least that's how I felt doing single pointed meditation with a stop watch. You progress quite quickly once you get used to doing the difficult work.

Day 1516 - Moved Back to the States

Day 1516 Record Keeping
Day 1487 Fixed Meditation (10 min, vipassana)
Day 1362 Writing (7 13 min Pomodoros)
Day 901 Rowing (35 min walk)
Day 642 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
Day 292 Social Media (STOPPED)XX
–
Ok sleep. 

Moved back to the States.

It's been less than 2 weeks. I've surprised myself being pretty consistent with meditating and writing a lot, despite not recording it. Since I had to sell my rower in Spain (along with everything else), rowing has to officially change. Right now I'm just trying to get up to walking, biking, and maybe some kayaking. It's been hard - we missed one of our flights back and were "only 15 hours late arriving" (as my mother said). This resulted in some pretty massive jet lag. I also got sick for what seemed like the 10th time this year. 

This is a huge transition for me, the end of a full decade of living abroad as an expat.  What with all the change, I haven't had time to really think what I want my workout regiment to be. I'm seriously considering GMB Fitness, an excellent bodyweight program Lydia does with progressions. The more I hear about it the more impressed I am. 

I'm still contemplating reinstating my social media habit. I've put it on hold after reading Cal Newport's book on Deep Work. I definitely want to hold off on it until I get my proposal in. My procrastination protocol is still working like a charm even in this, the hardest writing assignment I've ever had.

One of the biggest reasons we came back was hitting a wall with mastering eating. Eating is a real lynchpin habit to me - it governs energy, aesthetics, health, and is a stepping off point for a lot of other skills I'd like to master.  But in Spain, it hit a wall - there wasn't enough space to store premade meals. Our meal prep was contingent on going to 3 or 4 stores to get ingredients. And that didn't even count for all lunches or any dinners. One of our main schemes with coming back to the States was the knowledge that it would be easier here.

And it has. The last week we went to the store, and bought all ingredients for a week. Easily. Hand chopping salads? Why bother, when they come in bags! You don't even need to zoodle your own veggie, they come pre zoodled! Making lunches has been utterly effortless, exactly what I want self change to be. And Lydia is going further with it. She wants to cook through paleo cookbooks and have a randomized list for dinners, so even the act of making a menu doesn't even come up at all!

I'm beginning to think that moving back was a really good decision strategically. Sure it's definitely easy to lose it with all the easy access to delicious food. But it's also really easy to make changes. I'll miss Spain but right now I think it's already paying off. 

Day 1490 & Back From Italy

Day 1490 Record Keeping
Day 1461 Fixed Meditation (DID NOT DO)
Day 1336 Writing (8 13 min Pomodoros)
Day 875 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 616 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
Day 266 Social Media (STOPPED)
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Great sleep. Back from Italy. Got back a bit sooner on the horse in terms of recording and doing habits. I think it might be beneficial to start adding my routine bit by bit when starting back up again. This trip took a lot out of me, so I was surprised to be back at it in any capacity after only one day off. This day had me doing a lot of work. I think I have really nailed down my failure to start and approaching difficult writing. It may have solved a lot of my procrastination issues totally.

I really didn't want to work today, but just did my ego-depletion protocol and after only getting halfway through, felt energetic enough to do a lot of work. These next two weeks will be really weird, as I will be moving out of Spain. This will mean that my rowing may well take a hit since I intend on getting rid of my rower. I also want to focus on getting my proposal out, so I'll be focusing on that, as well as all the sundry cleaning and purging that will be necessary to leave.

I've decided to hold off on social media for now. All the Cal Newport I've read on focusing on the important tasks like getting better at writing, plus my solution to procrastination has me really wanting to focus on that now. It may be something I add in later, but we'll see.

Day 1476

Day 1476 Record Keeping
Day 1447 Fixed Meditation (10 min, tantra)
Day 1322 Writing (4 13 min, 1 20 min Pomodoros)
Day 861 Rowing (15 min/2600 m)
Day 602 Mobility/Stretching (10 min hip stretch & back smash)
Day 252 Social Media (PAUSED)
–
Great sleep. Excellent work. Several instances of meditation since I woke up depressed, angry, and frustrated. More output on writing. Really pushed on rowing.

Day 1469 & Testing Cal Newport's Advice

Day 1469 Record Keeping
Day 1440 Fixed Meditation (10 min, vipassana)
Day 1315 Writing (2 13 min Pomodoro)
Day 854 Rowing (15 min/2600 m)
Day 595 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch & back smash)
Day 245 Social Media (PAUSED)
–
Good sleep. Had a bunch of errands that took all day yesterday, hence the lack of recording.

Testing Cal Newport's Advice

I'm starting to test out some of the protocols Cal Newport advises in his book Deep Work, and today it was really good. The two things I focused on were removing distractions and writing down a detailed to-do list. 

Today I tried this by blocking Reddit and Facebook for the duration of work. I also used his method of making a plan right before starting. It's amazing what a difference these small things make. 

His writing really underscores the severe problems I have with focusing and working, and what I need to change. I often feel like I don't have enough hours in the day, even though I've been working the entire time. His point is that we often get into this fractured mental state where we just aimlessly check email in front of a computer, and this takes up most of our day. 

Rigorously finding where to cut these distractions is the key to work that actually matters. I think he's really on the money.