Timeblock
| Time (PDT) | Plan | Reality |
|---|---|---|
| 0000 | SLEEP | |
| 0030 | SLEEP | |
| 0100 | SLEEP | |
| 0130 | SLEEP | |
| 0200 | SLEEP | |
| 0230 | SLEEP | |
| 0300 | SLEEP | |
| 0330 | SLEEP | |
| 0400 | SLEEP | |
| 0430 | SLEEP | Early wake-up |
| 0500 | Morning routine | |
| 0530 | Coffee and rumination | Coffee and YouTube |
| 0600 | Pomodoro: Planning | Coffee and YouTube |
| 0630 | Pomodoro: Planning | |
| 0700 | Pomodoro: Tickler processing | |
| 0730 | Wake up wife and walk to gym | |
| 0800 | Stretching | |
| 0830 | Climbing | |
| 0900 | Grocery shopping | |
| 0930 | Walk home | |
| 1000 | Shower/breakfast | |
| 1030 | Buffer | Walk to Seattle Coffee Works |
| 1100 | Blinds | Budget date with wife |
| 1130 | Blinds | Budget date with wife |
| 1200 | Budget date with wife | Errands |
| 1230 | Budget date with wife | Walk home |
| 1300 | NAP | Cooking |
| 1330 | Pomodoro: Lexicon API | Eating and hanging out |
| 1400 | Pomodoro: Lexicon API | NAP |
| 1430 | Pomodoro: Lexicon API | Blinds |
| 1500 | Pomodoro: Lexicon API | Blinds |
| 1530 | Buffer | Blinds |
| 1600 | Buffer | Cleanup |
| 1630 | Hanging out | TV: YouTube |
| 1700 | Hanging out | TV: YouTube |
| 1730 | Hanging out | |
| 1800 | Hanging out | |
| 1830 | Hanging out | Tickler processing |
| 1900 | End of day items | TV: Steven Universe |
| 1930 | Hanging out | TV: YouTube |
| 2000 | Hanging out | |
| 2030 | Winding down | |
| 2100 | SLEEP | |
| 2130 | SLEEP | |
| 2200 | SLEEP | |
| 2230 | SLEEP | |
| 2300 | SLEEP | |
| 2330 | SLEEP |
Thinking
Library book returned and quarter spent.
I'll be trying out working during the day again. Though today is "my day", so I should have more time available. "Only" planning two hours of work though. This weekend it's assigned work, next weekend it'll be stuff I'd like to devote time to.
Yesterday, I set up my hue light bulbs. Last night I setup a routine such that the lights went from 1% brightness to 50% brightness on a "blue sky" color between 0430 and 0500. I woke up around 0440. I felt pretty awake and ended up getting out of bed at 0450. 1% blue sky brightness may be too much to start with. I experimented with the living room light on starting 1% red light brightness and having it fade to the "energize" setting (which is a similar blue light). I think that's a better setup, so I've update my system to that setup.
I've got to play a delicate game such that the light isn't too bright as to wake up my wife, but is enough to help me feel more awake at my normal wake up time. Not sure if the light woke up my wife this morning, I'll have to ask her. If it didn't, I feel safe doing it again tomorrow morning. Though I may want the maximum blue light brightness to be what is was around 0440. Which is maybe as little as 20%?.
Money Talks
So, this is the first whole month I've taken budgeting seriously, really. I mean, the month isn't over, but the habit feels fairly ingrained by now. It's one of those good habits that don't add much time on top of the normal effort, and also sometimes prevents things that would normally happen so it's a net gain in time, possibly.
I check YNAB everyday, and I try to add expenses as they happen, as well. The phone app does some geolocation stuff to guess where you are when you're submitting expenses there, which is neat and helpful (though wrong enough times that I have to be careful, but when it's wrong it takes no longer than when it doesn't know).
I'm taking moving budgetted amounts seriously instead of going negative and waiting for a paycheck. I'm also trying hard to not overpay in a month by moving those funds around. Also, Thanksgiving and Christmas have their monthly budgets now (like I did with Quakecon) and so I'm logging my "true expenses" better.
I've also added more goals:
- Japan trip
- Cat fund
- Mortgage (aka down payment)
- Computer replacement/upgrades
Now, computer replacement/upgrades is something I made an index fund for. But, I merged that index fund into my betterment one, which itself used to be for student loans, but now is over twice what my student loans are worth (by both outgrowing interest and with me doing monthly payments to my loans).
Basically, I might want to do my "One FIRE at a time" project if I want to have "individual funds" for things but still have it be in one index fund (which is better for tax reasons).
Actually, I'm getting a whole bunch of inspiration from the idea, kinda. Hmmm.... Well, I'll decide on what project to focus on first when I make time for personal projects, and right now I'm just building a "be productive at home desk at these times" habit, and using work (which I already know how to be productive at) as the thing I work on to build this habit.
It'll be a slow transition, and I might want to use this new productive time to build other productive habits (spaced-repetition, for example) well-before I ever start a personal project.
Anyways, I've gone off track a bit.
A regualar relationship with where my money is going has led to some interesting changes in decision-making. I don't like buying coffee with the wife on the weekend days I go to the coffee place with her now. That $5 can go to something I want more, and I can watch that $5 go somewhere as I literally will take coffee budget money out and put it where I want it more (I pretend I would have gotten something that cost the same amount as my wife).
I also don't feel the urge to get something for myself on the rare occasion the wife wants take-out now. Again, just charge what I would've gotten and put it somewhere else. which is why I've made long-term goals that maybe for now don't get monthly budget to them.
I'm interested to see how this habit evolves, but right now it's time to wake up the wife.