Day 1627 & Updates After Sickness (Flossing Superhabit)

Day 1627 Record Keeping
Day 1598 Fixed Meditation (10 min, vipassana)
Day 1473 Writing (3, 20 min Pomdoros)
Day 1012 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 753 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
Day 111 Sunday Groceries
Day 63 Flossing (SUPERHABIT, 6 teeth)
–
Great sleep. 

Updates After Sickness (Flossing Superhabit)

I'm finally back.

I've been sick for almost a month. I thought I was getting over it 9 days ago, but it came back with a vengeance. While it has completely messed up a lot of my individual instances of habits, I have kept a few things up.

First, I've been keeping up my flossing, both recording it and doing it. Flossing is now a SUPERHABIT, after achieving scores in the 80s on the SRHI for the last week. I plan on experimenting on the best ways to stretch the habit, which should be easier since it's a simple matter of counting teeth. This should get me a full 3 dimensional graph of the entire process of long term change from a behavioral standpoint. 

I've also successfully kept up with my Sunday Grocery habit in a new location, and eating has worked pretty damn well. I've been pairing this with a very specific thus far off-blog experiment - a 90 day no beer challenge. I'm on day 19, and the technique I'm using is working both effortlessly and flawlessly. More on that in a later post. 

I'll also be posting on two other projects. The first, a new take on getting up early, got interrupted by my sickness, but I think I still got some interesting data from it. The second, on writing, is still a work in progress, but I hope to soon set up trials on how to level that up shortly.

But before all that, I intend to slowly get back to my full complement of habits at levels back before my sickness.

Day 1616

Day 1616 Record Keeping
Day 1587 Fixed Meditation (DID NOT DO)
Day 1462 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 1001 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 742 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
Day 52 Flossing (SRHI = 64, 6 teeth)
–
Good sleep. Really sick, day trip. Only got home to at 2 am. Recorded only to observe that because of the change of location, I'm not really certain if I flossed today. Usually I floss in the shower, but because theres not enough of a ledge, I haven't been able to have it out, so I end up brushing, and therefore flossing outside of the shower. It's interesting that just a simple changeup can interfere with a habit at the brink of superhabit status.

Day 1614

Day 1614 Record Keeping
Day 1585 Fixed Meditation (20 min, vipassana/gratitude)
Day 1460 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 999 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 740 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
Day 109 Sunday Groceries
Day 50 Flossing (SRHI = 82, 6 teeth)
–
Horrible sleep. I've been massively sick for the last week and a half. I've also moved into an apartment in Houston, making this move from Spain to the States official. It's been really hectic, because we really don't have anything. Combined with the massive heat index, and it's just been pretty horrible. Still, not once did I stop flossing, so I'm pretty sure that's a superhabit now. It's unfortunate that I didn't have the will to record this last week, because I really wanted to have a clean graph of my habit model, from habit, superhabit, and in the third dimension, the number of teeth flossed. Ah well.

I'm back to my "structured randomness" eating, my Sunday groceries (at a new store), and lunch salads. I've also added another challenge  - not drinking beer - since it seems to really mess with my stomach these days. I'll be posting a full post about that soon.

Day 1395 & Mobilization Partitioning, Social Media Superhabit

Day 1395 Record Keeping
Day 1367 Fixed Meditation (10 min, metta/vipassana)
Day 1242 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 781 Rowing (10 min/ 1900 m)
Day 522 Mobility/Stretching (Research)
Day 172 Social Media (SRHI = 81, 3 pomodoros, quora - SUPERHABIT)
–
Good sleep. Once I got back I was attempting to partition several of my habits into different exercises depending on the day. One of the major ideas I got from finishing the book Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success was that cross training is good for accelerated skill development. But I needed time to just settle in, so I set all my habits to minimums. After getting over being sick last week, It's time to start in on doing that with mobilization, since I've basically been repeating the same few exercises each day, not at all tapping into the tomb that is Kelly Starrett's fantastic book Becoming a Supple Leopard.

Usually I'm horrible about planning to make changes outside of my routine. After I'm done, I'm usually done. This seemed like a good idea, to replace the routine with a research and planning element. So starting on Monday I'll be attempting to switch out, using Starrett's handy 14-day mobilization makeover. We'll see how it goes.

In addition, Social Media became a a superhabit by staying stable at over 80 on the SRHI for a week. I've started with Twitter, and have added answering Quora questions, which are really helpful in clearly and concisely articulating specific aspects of this project.

My goal next week is to really hit the ground running with finishing my book proposal. Like a Proposal Writing Week akin to my push for NaNoWriMo. I remember back when just getting a rough draft was difficult. I'm still finding the art of editing incredibly difficult, but luckily I've got a few Udemy courses on the subject from their recent 10 Euro sale.

Day 1374

Day 1374 Record Keeping
Day 1346 Fixed Meditation (DID NOT DO)
Day 1221 Writing (1 Pomodoro)
Day 760 Rowing (10 min/1700 m)
Day 501 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, achilles work)
Day 151 Social Media (SRHI = 81, 20 min, twitter research)
–
Good sleep. Been having a surprisingly good run of good sleep. My sleep cycle is all off from the travel, but it's pretty regular and deep, roughly 8 hours long, so not excessive. I've also been meditating as I go to sleep, so maybe that's had an impact. Did not have time to finish my routine with meditation today because I ran into a social plan.  I'm really pleased how well this week has gone once I finally formalized dropping to minimums at confronting wobbly habits. Social Media has seems to almost be at a super habit, which is great. 

Day 1119 & Return from Self Care Vacay

Day 1119 Record Keeping
Day 1091 Fixed Meditation (DID NOT DO)
Day 965 Writing (DID NOT DO)
Day 505 Rowing (walked, about 2 hours)
Day 246 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
—
Eating (from yesterday)
Day 36 Sunday Meal Prep 80 SUPERHABIT
—
Early to Rise
Day 274 Sleep Recording  (1|9:30|11)
Day 245 Bedtime Curfew
Day 83 Wakeup Alarm
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. Superhabit for Meal Prep Sunday - no longer recording SRHI.

Return from Self Care Vacation
About two weeks ago I posted how I really needed a break. A combination of just horrible nights of sleep and emotional turbulence. The break was initially supposed to only last a week and then I was going to see. After the first week I realized that I was just starting to get the hang of relaxing. 

Because, for me, relaxation has to be structured. If I melt in my couch and surf the internet I end up not doing anything, which is actually a lot less relaxing and positively boosting then sticking a schedule where I get out, go for a walk, do something creative, learn something, etc. And even then it was hard.

The first thing I realized is that I need to nail my sleep down. The other thing is that I need to get outside and brighten my mood to start the day off right. And those are the two things I’ll focus on implementing next. 

I don’t have the scale I need to judge sleep experiments nailed down quite yet. And, of course today is the day when guests are coming back AND I’m traveling to the States for two weeks at the end of the week. This obviously isn’t the best time to formalize both new habits, nor push the ones I have. 

While it seems that things are really scattered, I have, in the past week, continued to meditate, to get out and walk, set my wakeup alarm, and gone to sleep earlier. I automatically completed two meal prep sundays, such that it is now a superhabit. And I successfully completed my Gotham writing course! These are Good Things.

The next few weeks I will focus on getting all my habits at their minimums and I’ll try my best to go for a walk in the morning (which is easy since I like it and it’s fantastic weather) and work on my sleep scale.

Day 1081

Day 1081 Record Keeping
Day 1053 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 927 Writing (3/13 min, revision)
Day 467 Rowing (LISS, 30 min, 4800 m)
Day 208 Mobility/Stretching (10 min, hip stretch, back smash)
—–
Eating
Day 305 Pantry Check (DID NOT DO)
Day 303 Food Recording (DID NOT DO)
—
Early to Rise
Day 236 Water (DID NOT DO)
Day 236 Sleep Recording  (3:50|5|12|12:30)
Day 207 Bedtime Curfew (DID NOT DO - VISITORS)
Day 45 Wakeup Alarm 81 SUPERHABIT
–
Great sleep, ok wakeup. Declaring my wakeup alarm habit a superhabit, so no more recording. The visitors here caused me to stay up really late last night, but I’m pretty happy with that deviation. 

Day 1018 & Great Progress Over Multiple Skills

Day 1018 Record Keeping
Day 990 Fixed Meditation (20 min - incredibly good)
Day 864 Writing (3/20 min - incredibly good rewrite and research)
Day 404 Rowing (8x10 kbell swings, finally nailed my form)
Day 145 Mobility/Stretching (back stretches)
—–
Eating
Day 242 Pantry Check 
Day 240 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 173 Water (Totally forgot!)
Day 173 Sleep Recording  (1|2:50|10:45|11:30)
Day 144 Bedtime Curfew 81 SUPERHABIT
–
Ok sleep, good wakeup.

Great Progress Over Multiple Skills
My meditation was incredible today. It was smooth, deep, and I’m getting what pragmatic meditation practitioners are talking about with respect to noting the self. 

I finally nailed my kettlebell form - or at least the back issue that I’ve been dealing with. I tend to use my back to pull more than my hips. When I properly hip load it’s a totally different workout. While standing I naturally over extend my lower back, and this problem is exacerbated by swings. As I hip loaded I also concentrated on tilting my hips to neutral by engaging my abs, which prevented over extension. This is really the first time that I’ve ever felt kbell swings as an ab exercise, which I’ve always been puzzled by. Now I know why - Thanks Dr. Kelly Starett! I don’t think I’d even know where to begin to try to fix it if it wasn’t for this guy’s material. I’d be endlessly cycling with swings and back pain.

And writing also went really well, in large part because of James Patterson’s special Master Class. I was able to see the rewrite process as a series of edits, rather mandating perfection from one rewrite. It’s seriously unclenched my writing constipation. I’m recording all of this, not only to send as an example to a fellow writer and friend that I’ve been discussing this technique with, but in order to hone the process.

My bedtime curfew isn’t perfect at all, but I’m ready to call the TinyHabit a superhabit now. It’s a weird one, so I’ll have to see how best to advance it now that I’m used to forcing myself to a bed time.

Over the weekend I’ll have to really ponder what to do next - start a new habit (flossing? making the bed? finance tracking? A general reading habit? Social media marketing?) or advancing skills (waking up and going to bed earlier? Adding another dinner meal to my Sunday Meal Prep? A 14 day mobilization overhaul?).

In any case I’m pretty satisfied with today’s progress.

Day 941

Day 941 Record Keeping
Day 913 Fixed Meditation (10 min)
Day 787 Writing (2 rounds/30 min) HARD
Day 327 Rowing (30 min/4500 m)
Day 68 Mobility/Stretching 83 (couch stretch) SUPERHABIT
—–
Eating
Day 165 Pantry Check
Day 163 Food Recording (DID NOT DO, FROM YESTERDAY)
—
Early to Rise
Day 96 Bacon & Water
Day 96 Sleep Recording (5:20|6:20|1|1:20)
Day 69 Bedtime Curfew 74 (DID NOT DO)
–
Great sleep, good wakeup. Utterly ego depleted. 1 week in the 80′s for mobility, I declare it a superhabit and will no longer record it. My “Bacon and Water” habit has only been water for a long time, and will reflect that change from now on. Need to do a post researching intermittent fasting. Still rather unsure on how to progress with my bedtime curfew, as the base minimum will constantly change, and this is reflected by how slow it’s been to form up into a habit.

Day 872

Day 872 Record Keeping
Weekend Habits
—–
Eating
Day 96 Pantry Check
Day 94 Food Recording
—
Early to Rise
Day 27 Bacon & Water 80 SUPERHABIT
Day 27 Sleep Recording 79 (2:30|11:20|12:40) SUPERHABIT
–
Good sleep, good wakeup. At a week of really high SRHIs for my small “early to rise” habits I’m ready to call both of them superhabits and stop taking the SRHI for them. It is interesting that they both got into the 70s at around 18 days, which is what Lally reported for her simplest habits  - which I believe was also drinking a glass of water in the morning. It is curious that sleep recording is just a tinier bit behind my bacon and water habit. I think it has to do with the slight fuzziness of my implementation intention and how it’s a bit hard to record - recording when I go to sleep and go to bed is on a different day than when I get up - it straddles that awkward period. 

Day 842 & Pantry Check Superhabit

Day 842 Record Keeping
Day 814 Fixed Meditation (30 min)
Day 688 Writing (3 rounds of 30 min)
Day 228 Rowing (30 min/ 5400 m)
—–
Eating
Day 66 Pantry Check (81) SUPERHABIT
Day 64 Recording
—
good sleep, good wakeup. Tired today. 5 days over 80 in a row for pantry check habit - I’m calling it a superhabit. Now I gotta figure out what I’m doing next.

Day 820

Day 820 Record Keeping
Day 792 Fixed Meditation (31 min)
Day 666 Writing (2 rounds intense, 30 min each)
Day 206 Rowing (30 min, 5000 m)
—–
Eating
Day 44 Pantry Check (73)
Day 42 Recording
—
Great sleep, good wakeup. I’m trying to stretch out my writing/work. Normally I do whatever I need to do, but if it’s difficult my minimal is 30 minutes. If I’m working on my blog or doing work, it usually stretches out longer. But since I’m working on a difficult project that’s quite painful, and I want to complete it faster, I’m trying to stretch it out.

I’m pushing my rowing by introducing HIITS. Since I had holes in my schedule last week (only did one HIIT instead of two, cut a few things on Thursday, and completely skipped almost everything on Friday)  it clearly hasn’t stabilized.

My pantry check is almost buzzing along nicely, my food recording is a superhabit, so I’m hoping it won’t mess anything up to stretch out writing.

It seems so little, writing 30 minutes a day and stretching it out to an hour. Especially since I wrote so much in November for NaNoWriMo, and because I’ve written so much in the past. But I want to really zone in on my weaknesses, and I believe this is how you do it - otherwise it just collapses.

I wish there was a way to measure the strength of the rate of progress in a skill just like I measure the strength of a habit. That way I’d know exactly how long to do a skill push before pushing more.

Day 818 & Food Recording Superhabit

Day 818 Record Keeping
Day 790 Fixed Meditation (12 min)
Day 664 Writing
Day 204 Rowing (30 min/ 5400 m)
—–
Eating
Day 42 Pantry Check (71)
Day 40 Recording (80) SUPERHABIT
—–
Good sleep, great wakeup. At 79 and 80 for 6 days, I’m going to call food recording a superhabit. Per my previous protocols as of tomorrow I will not be taking the SRHI for that behavior. Time to think about another habit to initiate.

Day 814

Day 814 Record Keeping
Day 786 Fixed Meditation (did not do)
Day 660 Writing
Day 200 Rowing (did not do )
—–
Eating
Day 38 Pantry Check (69)
Day 36 Recording (80)
—–
Good sleep, good but tired wakeup. This was yet another day where I was utterly depleted. Did amazing amazing work in writing today despite dragging myself to my work desk and forcing myself to work. I feel like I’ve been working a lot on this particular project to no avail. But today I’m really close to finishing and it sounds worlds better than it did before. By my calculations I’ve honed roughly 10,000 words of brainstorming and writing down into 190 words. It’s the hardest bit of writing I’ve done, but I’ve managed to do it because I’ve sat at my desk and forced myself to work at it through this habit every day for only 30 minutes at a time.

There are times when I wonder if I’m making the right decision by this steady yet small approach. Today it feels vindicated.

Was super tired and Lydia suggested I take a day off from rowing. I think it was needed, but it also resulted in me not doing my meditation. 

I think it was a good decision. I definitely had more of a lighter day mentally and had the energy to do some intense cleaning and cooking. 

Very close to a superhabit with food recording. Will have to brainstorm what other habits it’s time to add.

Day 731

Day 731 Record Keeping
Day 703 Fixed Meditation
Day 577 Writing (82) SUPERHABIT
Day 117 Rowing
Day 5 Eating (13)
Day 5 Early Wakeup (12)
Great sleep, slow wakeup. Did not wakeup, did not do my morning eating - both ok because I’m still testing it out. Writing (or rather, my WORK habit as it has evolved into now) has maintained an 80+ for the last week so I’m no longer recording it.

Day 720

Day 720 Record Keeping
Day 689 Fixed Meditation
Day 566 Writing (76)
Day 106 Rowing 
Ok sleep, good wakeup. Record Keeping and Rowing made it a week past the 80s, so per my protocol with superhabits, I’m not recording them.

Day 545 & Between Scylla and Charybdis

Day 545 Record Keeping (63)
Day 514 Fixed Meditation 
Day 460 Bodyweight Exercise (7 typewriter pushups - 60)
Day 387 Writing (56)
Day 560 Eating (72)
Good sleep, good wakeup. Feeling good.

Per my previous protocol, I’ve dropped recording the SRHI for fixed meditation because I maintained an 80 or above in it for a week, giving it superhabit status. As an aside meditation has been going well. Last night I started meditating (I’ve been doing this  more and more often lately) vipassana style. I found myself getting into this solid groove of letting thoughts flow without clinging, and it started to feel really good. Just as though I was entering first jhana.

Lydia has been reading about this more than I have lately, and Daniel Ingram does mention that you can enter first jhana through vipassana. I’m liking how a lot of his book reflects my personal experience after the fact, for items I didn’t read clearly or just skimmed over. It makes me feel like I’m making solid progress.

When I meditate I often don’t really want to go through with it - but that first initial repulsion is overwhelmed by the solid habit of just getting into position. Once I start it starts happening. That’s exactly what I’ve been feeling the last couple of days with writing. Thinking about the nitty gritty I immediately don’t want to do it, but I find myself just walking to my chair sitting down, and setting up my next writing task. That’s exactly where I want habits to be, especially ones I’m pushing - I’m never going to like the pain involved, but I’m not thinking about that - I’m mechanically and habitually getting set up, and the rest flows. This has clearly resulted in a higher score in the SRHI which I think will continue.

Eating has been amazing - it really clicked this weekend, as  I had some old college friends visit. Despite going out and having dinner, I was on autopilot, ignoring the bad foods and eating the solid ones. That’s also resulted in a very high score on the SRHI, and that’s exactly where I want that habit to be.

Between Scylla and Charybdis

I feel a lot better about my habits. Last weeks depression has fallen away, as predictable. It feels like it regularly takes a week or two for that strain to fade. The opposite is what I’m feeling now - the urge to do more. 

Having more latent energy makes me want to expand my exercises, expand my writing, expand my meditation…This is dangerous. 

It’s like Scylla and Charybdis in Ulysses.  Scylla was a monster, Charybdis was a whirlpool, and ships had to figure out how to navigate the Strait of Messina without being torn to pieces. This metaphor is particularly apt because I’ve described this scenario before as a battle of two forces that threaten to rip a part progress in this project. Too much depletion, and you don’t want to do anything. Too much energy, and the internal urge to do more overextends your willpower/endurance/grit.

Ulysses survived with few losses by choosing Scylla, I can’t afford the losses and must choose to angle my ship precisely in between the two dangers.

Lydia said something interesting today. “Now that you have done what you need to do, your job is to be satisfied.”

There’s a lot of wisdom and skill in that statement. It means sacrificing sudden momentary swaths of gains for long term steady progress, which is the heart of this entire project, yet so difficult to remember when in the thrall of vortex forces.

It is very interesting how these emotional urges play out time wise….it’s something I need to pay closer attention to.

Day 464 & Dynamic Meditation Superhabit

Day 464 Record Keeping
Day 433 Fixed Meditation
Day 379 Bodyweight Exercise (2 typewriter pushups)
Day 306 Writing (transitions, 3 articles, 40 minutes!)
Day 479 Eating (71)
Day 114 Dynamic Meditation = 79 (20 min)
Day 61 Marketing = 67 (actionable task)
Great sleep, great wakeup. SICK, but much better. I’m calling Dynamic Meditation a superhabit - it’s been in the 80′s and 79 for about a month now. So this will be the last time I take the SRHI (barring it dropping from my regimen or having problems pushing it).

Dynamic Meditation Notes (20 minutes):
-x4 Shoulders

Writing (transitions, 3 articles, 40 minutes):
-Pushing this is hard, but not hard as in difficult. I feel like I want to stop, to look at facebook - distracted, but also that feeling of procrastination - “I don’t want to do it” - And I think that emotion is important to describe and acknowledge because it’s exactly the type of feeling I felt when pushing the research aspect. It eventually collapsed down with research into a “oh that’s not hard at all I don’t know what the big fuss was about.” I’m curious if the same thing happens here and in all bouts of pushing skills.

Day 405 & A Note About Alcohol & Food

Day 405 Record Keeping
Day 374 Fixed Meditation
Day 320 Bodyweight Exercise (6 pushups)
Day 247 Writing (120 words)
Day 420 Eating
Day 55 Dynamic Meditation = 72 (20 min)
Day 2 Marketing = 18 (35 minutes of reading/active research)
Great sleep, slow wakeup. A bit hungover

A Note About Alcohol
During the last week I traveled quite a bit showing my friend around Texas. What was striking was how little I cheated food wise and how little I drank. Both were fueled by habit and a desire to NOT feel bad. My sensitivity to bad food has increased, and my sensitivity to drinking even a little bit is remarkable. 

This is a really good thing.

It makes NOT doing a habit significantly harder - the sure sign of a superhabit. And it underscores continuing down that path in the future. 

Last night I had an incredibly tiny amount of alcohol - two beers and a bit of wine -  and I felt horrible this morning. No headache, just that sense of lethargy and sickness, and it disrupted my sleep. My max limit of two drinks (wine or beer) even feels like it might be too much. I’m reminded of the Inebriati Sketch by Mitchell and Webb where the world’s greatest secret is that everything becomes better with ALMOST two drinks. But completing the second drink results in world annihilation. 

While I don’t think that every day necessitate drinking, having such a protocol when I drink might be worthwhile - a good middle ground. Call me one of the Knights Tippler, from now on!

Dynamic Med Notes (20 min):
x6 shoulders
x7 Fidgeting
x5 arisings of nervousness - caught
x1 arising of justice anger caught
Notes: Justice anger seems to be a big thing with me - the idea that things OUGHT to be a certain way and the anger that the world isn’t actually that way.

Day 392

Day 392 Record Keeping
Day 361 Fixed Meditation
Day 307 Bodyweight Exercise (3 bridges)
Day 234 Writing (organizing pitches)
Day 407 Eating = 81
Day 42 Dynamic Meditation = 69 (40 minutes)
Great sleep, great wakeup. Sick. Really good fixed meditation and writing today. Although I haven’t managed a full week streak of 80′s scores for eating, it’s come close twice (two 5 day streaks) and the only reason was because I was either sick or incredibly busy to record. I think I’m finally ready to call eating a superhabit.

Dynamic Med Notes (40 minutes):
x5 arising
x2 fidgeting
X2 shoulders
x1 laughter - again not quite getting into the groove of that “cheating at  life” feeling