Or, alternately, that gathering data is an essential thing that we reliably fail to do.
In my first year of financial independence, the best thing I did for myself was just record, each day, how much I spent and what I spent it on. Despite living on a grad student’s budget for 5 years, I never ended up strapped for cash, didn’t have to skip out on fun times for lack of funds, and even had enough left to start saving.
Ditto for my akrasia remedy from last year (points system during the workday: 1 point per minute for productive mathematical work, 1⁄2 point per minute for listening to math talks or working on teaching, and −1 point per minute for wasting time online, with a goal of +180 every day); the most essential part, I now think, was that I kept track of how I was actually spending my time.
Or, alternately, that gathering data is an essential thing that we reliably fail to do.
In my first year of financial independence, the best thing I did for myself was just record, each day, how much I spent and what I spent it on. Despite living on a grad student’s budget for 5 years, I never ended up strapped for cash, didn’t have to skip out on fun times for lack of funds, and even had enough left to start saving.
Ditto for my akrasia remedy from last year (points system during the workday: 1 point per minute for productive mathematical work, 1⁄2 point per minute for listening to math talks or working on teaching, and −1 point per minute for wasting time online, with a goal of +180 every day); the most essential part, I now think, was that I kept track of how I was actually spending my time.