Daily Habits Checklist #106 (August 5 to September 1)

The 5-day gap in week 2 is hard to explain. I simply forgot to track. Think I was too “heads down” working on stuff, which is good and bad?

The last 10 days of the month was spent in Finland / Iceland on vacation, but found some time to exercise / work / habit. Somewhat unusual, as more commonly, any sort of travel – especially international – takes a wrecking ball to even my most consistent routines.

Look forward to getting back on track!

Daily Habits Checklist #104 (June 3 to June 30)

I’d give myself a B grade for these 4 weeks. In areas like meditation and reading, I wasn’t as consistent as I’d have liked.

I want to make some big changes to the checklist. In particular to concentrate more on helping other people, instead of just self-improvement and self-generative activities. For example, daily volunteer work would be great, but probably impractical. If I did it weekly, how should I keep track? And what kinds of social or philanthropic work could I do every day?

Also – I’m spending a lot of time in Vietnam now if you’re ever in the broader SE Asia area :)

Also also – I’d highly encourage you to watch the new Korean movie Parasite. A heart rending genre bender. Director Bong Joon Ho continues to evolve and amaze.

Daily Habits Checklist #101 (February 25 to March 31): “Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life.”

Another five solid weeks, and more of the same realization: If I start the day early (before 7am, preferably), I have both the momentum and time to finish all – or most – of the habits. But if I get started at, say, 9am (whether from poor sleep, or a mild hangover, or sheer laziness), then the rest of the day is an uphill battle.

I’m also trying to be more cognizant of the habits that energize, too: for example, Reading. If I can read articles or books for even 30 minutes in the middle of the day (as opposed to, say, getting all my reading done while lying in bed at the end of the day), the very act of reading tends to stimulate and energize me, providing a little boost for whatever activity comes after. It can be hard to just stop what I’m doing, sit on the couch, and open Pocket / Kindle and quietly read for 30 minutes, but the payoff is usually worth it.

Currently thinking: “Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life.” – Steven Wright

Currently watching: Food Wars aka Shokugeki no Soma, a sweet and funny anime about ambitious teenagers accepted to an elite cooking academy slash prep school.

Hope everyone’s doing well. It’s already April :) You can do it!

Daily Habits Checklist (May 15th – June 11th): A painter, who became Picasso

Another good 4 weeks and the progress I believe is starting to show, at least in private. The big gap in late May was due to a family cruise which was a great time. And all that white space on Friday May 26th was the result of a delayed flight. I suppose I *could* meditate and do back stretches while waiting at the terminal, but am averse to public attention…

My music habits have been moved to their own category. These include practicing the piano and guitar, and writing song lyrics. Thus they aren’t here, on the main list. But maybe I’ll include them in future updates. My goal is to start publishing songs soon. They probably won’t sound very good :/

Some thoughts on the habits…

Waking early: Your partner’s sleep schedule has a big impact on yours. If your sleep and wake cycles aren’t in sync, then one of you (usually both of you) will suffer. If you can’t get in sync, consider sleeping in separate beds and ignore the social stigma…? :)

Pushups: Seeking ways to “exceed my level”, in the words of Bruce Lee. In this case, eg, decline pushups

Meditate: Still remains hard, after all these years. Why?

My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.

Here’s why I track habits this way.

Thanks for reading!

Daily Habits Checklist (April 17 – May 14): Netflix & work chill

A good 4 weeks. The three blank days you see in the middle are the result of a 4-day vacation to Cebu. I have the workaholic tendency to loathe beach vacations after about the 2nd day, but to my surprise I didn’t want this one to end.

The “evening to do’s” habit (a grab bag of little activities to prep for tomorrow such as packing my work bag) has morphed into the “evening work sesh” habit (where I load a Netflix movie of the fast food variety on the living room TV after dinner, and do an hour or two of busy work while watching it). This has been a nice modification. Having a fun movie playing in the background helps me to squeeze an extra bit of productivity juice from the day’s orange…or something.

A quick review of each habit…

Waking early: in addition to exercise, one of the biggest levers for my day. Waking up at 7am is not just one hour better than waking at 8am. It’s at least 90 minutes better

Pushups: the idea is that each year you increase your goal not decrease it. My hope is that at 80 years old I can manage 80 pushups…even if I have to do 5 at a time from morning til dusk lol

Write: because good writing is good thinking and it’s one of my favorite things to do

Meditate: remains hard but worth it

Exercise: along with waking early, one of the best ROIs on time and a force multiplier for just about everything

Publish: can’t keep your work to yourself if you want to improve and connect and grow. Need to improve here

Stretch back & neck: because I’ve had recurring stiffness problems which have by and large gone away since I started to do these exercises

What do you suppose will satisfy the soul, except to walk free and own no superior? – Walt Whitman

Why do I track and share this stuff? Click here. Thanks for reading!