Hmm, Don’t Break the Chain might actually be worth giving a try.
I don’t think my goal is to never relapse, and I think it’s likely enough that I don’t want to screw myself over completely if I do. I would be very sad in the event that that happened, and it would probably result in all sorts of self-hating feelings that in my experience are very anti-productive.
I tried melatonin once and had extremely disturbing dreams. I don’t think it would help me much, because my chief problem isn’t getting to sleep or even precommitting to go to sleep half an hour in advance; rather, it’s that I have work I need to get done for the next day. The half-hour precommitment might be useful in a few cases, but not that many.
I found myself forgetting (or avoiding) the DBTC website so a paper calendar may work best, provided you can prevent an ugh field from developing around it. I think there is more satisfaction in physically drawing a cross in permanent ink.
I see how the pressure of a massive pledge can be self-defeating. Perhaps it could work for short-term goals, but testing it is risky.
I’ve been having very odd dreams which may in fact be linked to my recent melatonin use. I’m surprised that I hadn’t noticed the possible connection until you pointed it out. This sounds like a good candidate for a self-blind experiment.
If you do an experiment, please do report back. I’m interested in the results, though not enough to do it myself.
Mostly I regard very high-pressure pledges as a kind of personal “nuclear option”. I occasionally will do this for a short period—like last semester, when I had to catch up on schoolwork after a very long illness, and needed very strict rules to keep myself on track - but it seems like a bad idea to do if you think the probability of breaking it is at all high. If you do break it, you lose a big part of your ability to trust important precommitments; I don’t use such promises all the time because I want to be able to use them if I have to.
Also, I don’t really want to lose that much money.
I’ve found it helpful to have a plan for what to do when I get off track, and a small allowance for random interference in my tracking.. Perfection is an unreasonable standard for the majority of my activities.
Learning how to start again is more valuable than keeping to perfection. And, it’s a skill I use more often.
Hmm, Don’t Break the Chain might actually be worth giving a try.
I don’t think my goal is to never relapse, and I think it’s likely enough that I don’t want to screw myself over completely if I do. I would be very sad in the event that that happened, and it would probably result in all sorts of self-hating feelings that in my experience are very anti-productive.
I tried melatonin once and had extremely disturbing dreams. I don’t think it would help me much, because my chief problem isn’t getting to sleep or even precommitting to go to sleep half an hour in advance; rather, it’s that I have work I need to get done for the next day. The half-hour precommitment might be useful in a few cases, but not that many.
I found myself forgetting (or avoiding) the DBTC website so a paper calendar may work best, provided you can prevent an ugh field from developing around it. I think there is more satisfaction in physically drawing a cross in permanent ink.
I see how the pressure of a massive pledge can be self-defeating. Perhaps it could work for short-term goals, but testing it is risky.
I’ve been having very odd dreams which may in fact be linked to my recent melatonin use. I’m surprised that I hadn’t noticed the possible connection until you pointed it out. This sounds like a good candidate for a self-blind experiment.
If you do an experiment, please do report back. I’m interested in the results, though not enough to do it myself.
Mostly I regard very high-pressure pledges as a kind of personal “nuclear option”. I occasionally will do this for a short period—like last semester, when I had to catch up on schoolwork after a very long illness, and needed very strict rules to keep myself on track - but it seems like a bad idea to do if you think the probability of breaking it is at all high. If you do break it, you lose a big part of your ability to trust important precommitments; I don’t use such promises all the time because I want to be able to use them if I have to.
Also, I don’t really want to lose that much money.
I’ve found it helpful to have a plan for what to do when I get off track, and a small allowance for random interference in my tracking.. Perfection is an unreasonable standard for the majority of my activities.
Learning how to start again is more valuable than keeping to perfection. And, it’s a skill I use more often.