The Rules

10/11/15

I've spoken a bit about injecting some more direct consequences to various bad habits I have been having trouble quitting before.

Since then, I have developed some more formalized rules, though mind you it's still quite the work in progress.

The Rules

• Monetary consequences is lost money, doesn't go to savings
• All junk-food costs are 4x the store-value
• All visits to personally-banned websites cost $10
  • Each additional minute on the site is $1
• Starting up a video game costs $10
  • Each additional minute costs $1

Unlocking Exceptions

Now, there needs to be alternative means of accessing that content without monetary damage, because I believe that in proper doses those things are good experiences that contribute to my growth in various areas.

Junk-food, however, will always have a monetary damage. Even if breaking the rule was good for me, it should be rare enough that I can afford taking the damage. Though, a technical way around it is to bake my own sweets. Though, I find it hard to call self-baked goods junk food.

As for personal websites, I will assign myself one thing to read at a time (right now it's Mr. Money Mustache), and I'll need to properly formalize the rules for switching to new reading material. I think an enforcement of focus here will be valuable.

For games... well, I want to make games. I also want to force myself to control scope and make a bunch of tiny games that build my abilities. So, I get 10 hours of play for every 1 game I make. These rules too will need to be properly formulized and updated, but for now, as long as it's a game as defined in the Art of Game Design (a definition I need to reread), that satisfies this condition for now.

I haven't quite started diving into productive work, but I have reeled back significantly on all the time-wasting activities I used to partake in. Right now, I've filled a lot of that in with watching videos I have been wanting to watch but been putting off.

I don't think I'll need to make rules for videos though. I can only handle watching so much video for so long. I fill up on it fairly quickly. We'll see soon if I'm correct about this, but I feel I've already burnt out on video.

If I can stay aware from the various content that eats up all my time and energy, I think that the resulting free-time will lead to daydreaming, boredom, and then finally projects.

The daydreams have been strong. Boredom should set in soon.