Timeblock

Thinking

Ended up never stretching yesterday. One thing after another. Didn't grocery shop either. I'll make sure to do both today.

Timeblock

Thinking

Not liking my new habit of waking up at 0630, but its consistent enough that I've baked it into my default timeblock. I'll try to wake up early over the weekend and reset.

Time for some music with wife.

Redoing the Plan

Have an orthodontist appointment, meaning my grocery shopping had to be moved.

Timeblock

Thinking

Waking up a bit later than I would like again. Will try to wake up by 0600 again tomorrow. Maybe even go for 0500 (but I may reserve that for the weekend).

Dream

I had a very vivid dream. A lucid one, maybe? But I can't remember it at all anymore.

Timeblock

Thinking

My brain was obsessed with stuff yesterday, and so I had trouble deciding to go to bed. Ended up sleeping in to get a solid amount of sleep. Still a little out of it, though. I think I can make it work though. Going to move some things around to prep for the all hands at 1000 properly.

Dream

I was some sort of air conditioning salesman in a rivalry with some other company.

Timeblock

Thinking

No more default pomodoros. I already timeblock items in, and now I use time-tracking. I might set a timer just to remind me to switch. Pomodoros, I think, will be more strict going forward. 25 minutes of "deep work" with an explicit goal by the end of it. And then also a planned break of some properly energizing task (stretching, pacing, push-ups, etc).

Timeblock

Thinking

Woke up with a bit of an upset stomach so I slept in. Though the cat really didn't want any of that. Think it'll all work out, though. Today is a meeting/appointment-heavy day so I won't get much work in, I don't think. Putting in a lot of buffers to set expectations low and doable. Let's see if I can exceed those expectations.

I'm pretty sure that regular stretching and a low heartbeat are correlated. After a consistent week of stretching (woo!), I'm now regularly seeing my heart rate below 50, and it often stays below 60 when at my standing desk (usually around 70 like it is right now).

Pretty happy with these habits coming in. I think a big goal here is to not overdo it. Pick a minimum when things are hard, pick a maximum when things are easy, and adhere to those numbers. I got this from a game dev diary wherein a person was making a game a month (he's also a writer):

"Everyone has what works for them. My method for writing books is to write one page a day, and try not to think about if it's turning out good or not. This is after all why they call it a first draft. Try not to reread it too much and most definitely don't go back and rewrite anything. Focus on getting to the end. If you can't think of what's going to happen next, skip ahead to the next thing you are sure about. Everything gets easier once you get to the end, once we know where it's going, and what the point of the whole thing was. And that's when you go back and rewrite the earlier bits and get everything in line.

"The most important thing for me is not to write more than a page a day. Some days you feel like you could write more, great, stop anyway, hang onto it, stew on it over night, and starting tomorrow's page will be easy. Writing as much as you can everyday is the fastest way to burn out. So try to write at least a page, but if you really can't manage that, just write something everyday. Even one line. Even one word. Is forward progress."

I think this is solid. I definitely go too hard too fast and then am exhausted. I even did this the first week on ADHD meds for employed-work and by Thursday was burnt out. Last week, I did things in a much more sustainable way, managed to work throughout the week, and also am ready for work with this week (the weekend was "enough" of a break, in this sense).

Perhaps a new mantra is in order, then? Maybe in addition to "practice flexibility" and maybe "practice intentionality" (not sure about this one yet), there can be "one page a day"?

Something to ruminate on.

Timeblock

Thinking

Off to a decent start today, I think. Maybe a bit inefficient this morning, but that's okay. Going to see if I can make time for side-projects today. Nothing serious, though, I don't think. Might get a Leetcode account and start drilling problems. Make that a game I regularly play. Get into the habit of regularly solving new problems.

Wouldn't mind getting back into my minimal webapp, though, either. Still want to make that "Paid Off for Life" MVP setup.

It is also a day to do a monthly review.... Been a while since I did one of those. Been a while since I did a proper personal weekly review, as well. I could start with a weekly and maybe do a monthly on top of that.

Hmmmm....

Notion Tasks

Trying to take my daily task list more seriously. Less... punting stuff to the future. Stuff that's punted too often should probably live in a list I just review once a week or something. Should probably make a weekly review list and stuff, actually.

One task item I've come across regularly is "No Twitter Streak Continues?" I don't have to write thoughts about it, I like to just think about it. It's a daily item, but it's also something I haven't discussed in a while.

I have been twitter free for a pretty long time again. To the point that the desire doesn't really trigger. I don't feel particularly less politically knowledgeable, either, which was often my main excuse. Though I don't keep up with the news, the people I'm surrounded by do and I get a lot of it through osmosis.

Though there is a news site that a friend recommends that I might check out.

Timeblock

Dream

I had some sort of vague dream about playing MTG Arena, I think. Just know there was some card I was interacting with that doesn't exist, I'm pretty sure.

Thinking

Woke up in the middle of the night for an unknown reason for 2 hours. Slept two hours later as a result. Feeling okay overall. Not doing the "normal" routine (though Saturdays have no normal currently). I have convinced the deeper self that these logs and that stretching is integral to my consistent happiness. At least, that's how it feels currently and is why I'm doing a plan so late in the day and will be stretching right after.

Today might be a lot more about just chatting with friends, I think. Will try to get some reading in, and maybe some side project stuff, though a lot of the day is gone already.

Timeblock

Thinking

Built-in plan buffers are going pretty well, I think. A means of practicing intentionality whilst also practicing flexibility. I'm being pretty good about time-tracking, but need to start looking at graphs soon, to get value. That's something I'll need to figure out over the weekend, I think.

I do really like the intentionality of writing in what I'm switching to when I switch to it, though. That has a lot of value in of itself.

Timeblock

Thinking

Yesterday went very well. Caffeine seems safe, so I had some caffeine this morning again. I also started time-tracking yesterday (with Toggl).

I tried out Toggl a while back, but it didn't stick. Going to try again, but make sure I see graphs of my stuff maybe during a weekly review or something.