Successful people have productive routines. It’s painfully obvious that if you want to be successful, you’re going to have to have productive routines too. I used to shy away from any kind of conscious routine-forming, unfairly associating it with rigidity and regimentation. But humans are creatures of habit, and in the absence of productive routines we will fall prey to unproductive ones- AKA story of my adolescence.
The first stage of my 90 week experiment- weeks 1 to 30- focused on documentation.
I didn’t get too aggressive about changing anything- I followed the simple maxim of “What gets measured gets managed” as described in detail in the post “Keeping track of every day.“ (I will post summaries and analysis of the data I’ve collected so far, soon.) I feel like 30 weeks has been long enough to get somewhat acquainted with the habit.
The second stage of my experiment- weeks 30 to 60- will be focused on conscientious adaptation.
To follow with the video game analogy; now that I have a fairly decent functioning dashboard of information, I can start to build effective tactics- by that I mean I’m going to directly intervene in the creation of habits and routines. That’s what phase 2- weeks 30 to 60- is going to be focused on.
Here’s a rough idea of how I’ve got things planned:
Daily:
- Meditate.
- Keep tracking everything!
- Write something, anything.
- Play music (Guitar, Bass, Sing)
- Call girlfriend
2-3 times a week:
- Focused reading
- Run (training for half-marathon)
Weekly:
- Solid, intense workout
- Moisturize
- Cut nails
- Non-Smoking Day
- Reflect/Regroup/Analyse
- Quality alone time with girlfriend
Fortnightly:
- Poker with mates
- Beer with mates
- Meet an old/new friend outside of immediate social circle
Monthly:
- Haircut
- Hit the beach
- Indulge in an experience
- Massage/acupuncture?
Don’ts:
- Don’t sleep later than 1am more than 3 times a week
- Don’t go online without a clear purpose more than 2 times a week
- Don’t smoke more than 3 sticks in a single “session”
This isn’t finalized or set in stone or anywhere near complete, but you start to get a sense of what I’m doing. Essentially, the idea is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get basic bare essentials done, to force/remind myself to indulge in experiences that I tend to want but forget to, stuff like that.
Routine Analysis: Week 30: The Next Stage.
Successful people have productive routines. It’s painfully obvious that if you want to be successful, you’re going to have to have productive routines too. I used to shy away from any kind of conscious routine-forming, unfairly associating it with rigidity and regimentation. But humans are creatures of habit, and in the absence of productive routines we will fall prey to unproductive ones- AKA story of my adolescence.
The first stage of my 90 week experiment- weeks 1 to 30- focused on documentation.
I didn’t get too aggressive about changing anything- I followed the simple maxim of “What gets measured gets managed” as described in detail in the post “Keeping track of every day.“ (I will post summaries and analysis of the data I’ve collected so far, soon.) I feel like 30 weeks has been long enough to get somewhat acquainted with the habit.
The second stage of my experiment- weeks 30 to 60- will be focused on conscientious adaptation.
To follow with the video game analogy; now that I have a fairly decent functioning dashboard of information, I can start to build effective tactics- by that I mean I’m going to directly intervene in the creation of habits and routines. That’s what phase 2- weeks 30 to 60- is going to be focused on.
Here’s a rough idea of how I’ve got things planned:
Daily:
2-3 times a week:
Weekly:
Fortnightly:
Monthly:
Don’ts:
This isn’t finalized or set in stone or anywhere near complete, but you start to get a sense of what I’m doing. Essentially, the idea is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get basic bare essentials done, to force/remind myself to indulge in experiences that I tend to want but forget to, stuff like that.