Thought I’d check in and let people now how their advice has paid off so far:
Just wanted to followup on how these suggestions have actually worked out for me:
1) I installed “Stay Focused” (Leechblock for chrome). It has definitely helped, although I’m not sure how much. At the very least it makes me aware of how much time i’m spending. An issue is that approximately every few minutes, the programs I work with take 30 − 200 seconds to save or open a file (I do computer animation), so a substantial fraction of the day is spent waiting, during which I could be surfing (or doing something) and after the 10 minutes of surf-time I gave myself expired, I started finding new sites that I hadn’t blocked yet. Today I tried the “nuclear option” which just blocks all internet except a few sites that I specify, and I think that worked better.
2) I’ve been making an effort to jog instead of walk whenever I need to go somewhere and occasionally just did it because. I haven’t reached my goal of “20 minutes of solid exercise,” but if I were able to maintain the amount I’ve been doing over the past week I’d be less worried about my health.
3) Someone gave me a bunch of cheese for Christmas, but despite that I think I’ve actually been doing okay. Again, if I actually maintained the amount I ate this week I’d be less worried about health. I’m under no illusions that’ll actually happen without making some additional effort to find a replacement food for the cheese niche.
4) Today I got on the bus, took my hat off, and then left it on my seat. I only remembered it because some lady said “hey, you forgot your hat!” So… the “losing things” issue is still looking pretty not-good. I guess I should try to put everything “detachable” in my backpack as soon as I sit down, but in some situations that’s not feasible. (Either I don’t have a backpack or the item doesn’t fit).
5) Going to a crazy top hat party this weekend, which isn’t a recurring activity but will make me feel good enough that I can postpone finding one for another week before I start feeling guilty again. Yay?
Thought I’d check in and let people now how their advice has paid off so far:
Just wanted to followup on how these suggestions have actually worked out for me:
1) I installed “Stay Focused” (Leechblock for chrome). It has definitely helped, although I’m not sure how much. At the very least it makes me aware of how much time i’m spending. An issue is that approximately every few minutes, the programs I work with take 30 − 200 seconds to save or open a file (I do computer animation), so a substantial fraction of the day is spent waiting, during which I could be surfing (or doing something) and after the 10 minutes of surf-time I gave myself expired, I started finding new sites that I hadn’t blocked yet. Today I tried the “nuclear option” which just blocks all internet except a few sites that I specify, and I think that worked better.
2) I’ve been making an effort to jog instead of walk whenever I need to go somewhere and occasionally just did it because. I haven’t reached my goal of “20 minutes of solid exercise,” but if I were able to maintain the amount I’ve been doing over the past week I’d be less worried about my health.
3) Someone gave me a bunch of cheese for Christmas, but despite that I think I’ve actually been doing okay. Again, if I actually maintained the amount I ate this week I’d be less worried about health. I’m under no illusions that’ll actually happen without making some additional effort to find a replacement food for the cheese niche.
4) Today I got on the bus, took my hat off, and then left it on my seat. I only remembered it because some lady said “hey, you forgot your hat!” So… the “losing things” issue is still looking pretty not-good. I guess I should try to put everything “detachable” in my backpack as soon as I sit down, but in some situations that’s not feasible. (Either I don’t have a backpack or the item doesn’t fit).
5) Going to a crazy top hat party this weekend, which isn’t a recurring activity but will make me feel good enough that I can postpone finding one for another week before I start feeling guilty again. Yay?