I’m taking a few minutes now to write what comes to mind, reflect on my day, plan, organize, blah blah blah.
Today was a good and productive day!
I successfully avoided Hacker News, didn’t doomscroll at all on any site, and completed >50% of things I listed in yesterday’s shortform!
Didn’t read much today outside of light LW post skimming and chugging through a book while sitting in the car and waiting (had to wait a few times for >5 minutes in the car today but that’s why keeping a book in the car at all times comes in handy; note: I always shut the engine off if parking for >1 minute, at that point it becomes fuel inefficient to keep the car idling for any longer, plus is bad for the environment to idle the engine). I’d like to read more tomorrow, very uncertain if I will though, probably will be too busy with holiday things and tasks I’ve assigned myself.
I’m repeating the “spend 30 minutes outside in the sun” TODO item tomorrow, because I think that’s just something fantastic to do each day, daily physical activity and sunlight exposure for vitamin D + improved mood are great for the body (well, at least during winter I know that 30 minutes of sunlight won’t be skin damaging, I’ll have to make adjustments and definitely wear sunscreen during the spring and summer) and thus the mind. If it rains I’ll go into the garage and lift weights and/or get cardio done by jumping rope (a surprisingly intense cardio activity, especially if you can do double jumps). Repeating this task daily tracks well with my goals and also tracks well as a form of Rationalist Self-Improvement; with a few exceptions, I believe that engaging in regular physical activity and maintaining a good diet are necessary components of a good life, being the best version of oneself one can be, self improvement, improvement as a Rationalist, etc. etc. etc. And I don’t do those things very well nor consistently enough yet, but I will overcome those two failure modes! (the two failure modes being: (1) not engaging in regular physical activity and (2) not maintaining a good diet consistently).
I’ve purposely increased my virtual social activities, frequency of communication with friends, and general communication frequency with others over the last two weeks and this has had a noticeably positive impact on my mood. I did this in response to oncoming feelings of depression, previously, I would feel such feelings and withdraw / isolate which now I think started a pretty vicious cycle of withdrawing leading to more depression and more depression leading to more withdrawing. By forcing myself to do the opposite this time I have experienced a much much much lighter series of depressed moods that have lasted far shorter this time around than during my last encounter with them.
Note to self: withdrawing when feeling the oncoming of depression leads to a vicious cycle of bad things and more depression; increasing socialness, communication, and general productive output when feeling the oncoming of depression leads to a virtuous cycle where the depression goes away faster and is much less intense while present. Isolation is bad, basically.
Protect and engender virtuous cycles, notice and break out of vicious cycles. Repeat. Win.
I ordered a bunch of books today! Looking forward to finishing The Magician’s trilogy (Lev Grossman), reading books 16 and 17 of the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher), introducing myself to Daoism via 2 or 3 different books, and reading 2 books on writing. Books are a great Christmas present.
Today I received my copy of “A Map That Reflects the Territory” (curated essays from LW written during 2018 that were published as books; https://www.lesswrong.com/books) and all the books in that set are gorgeous! Looking forward to reading them throughout the rest of the holidays.
I’m taking a few minutes now to write what comes to mind, reflect on my day, plan, organize, blah blah blah.
Today was a good and productive day!
I successfully avoided Hacker News, didn’t doomscroll at all on any site, and completed >50% of things I listed in yesterday’s shortform!
Didn’t read much today outside of light LW post skimming and chugging through a book while sitting in the car and waiting (had to wait a few times for >5 minutes in the car today but that’s why keeping a book in the car at all times comes in handy; note: I always shut the engine off if parking for >1 minute, at that point it becomes fuel inefficient to keep the car idling for any longer, plus is bad for the environment to idle the engine). I’d like to read more tomorrow, very uncertain if I will though, probably will be too busy with holiday things and tasks I’ve assigned myself.
I’m repeating the “spend 30 minutes outside in the sun” TODO item tomorrow, because I think that’s just something fantastic to do each day, daily physical activity and sunlight exposure for vitamin D + improved mood are great for the body (well, at least during winter I know that 30 minutes of sunlight won’t be skin damaging, I’ll have to make adjustments and definitely wear sunscreen during the spring and summer) and thus the mind. If it rains I’ll go into the garage and lift weights and/or get cardio done by jumping rope (a surprisingly intense cardio activity, especially if you can do double jumps). Repeating this task daily tracks well with my goals and also tracks well as a form of Rationalist Self-Improvement; with a few exceptions, I believe that engaging in regular physical activity and maintaining a good diet are necessary components of a good life, being the best version of oneself one can be, self improvement, improvement as a Rationalist, etc. etc. etc. And I don’t do those things very well nor consistently enough yet, but I will overcome those two failure modes! (the two failure modes being: (1) not engaging in regular physical activity and (2) not maintaining a good diet consistently).
I’ve purposely increased my virtual social activities, frequency of communication with friends, and general communication frequency with others over the last two weeks and this has had a noticeably positive impact on my mood. I did this in response to oncoming feelings of depression, previously, I would feel such feelings and withdraw / isolate which now I think started a pretty vicious cycle of withdrawing leading to more depression and more depression leading to more withdrawing. By forcing myself to do the opposite this time I have experienced a much much much lighter series of depressed moods that have lasted far shorter this time around than during my last encounter with them.
Note to self: withdrawing when feeling the oncoming of depression leads to a vicious cycle of bad things and more depression; increasing socialness, communication, and general productive output when feeling the oncoming of depression leads to a virtuous cycle where the depression goes away faster and is much less intense while present. Isolation is bad, basically.
Protect and engender virtuous cycles, notice and break out of vicious cycles. Repeat. Win.
I ordered a bunch of books today! Looking forward to finishing The Magician’s trilogy (Lev Grossman), reading books 16 and 17 of the Dresden Files (Jim Butcher), introducing myself to Daoism via 2 or 3 different books, and reading 2 books on writing. Books are a great Christmas present.
Today I received my copy of “A Map That Reflects the Territory” (curated essays from LW written during 2018 that were published as books; https://www.lesswrong.com/books) and all the books in that set are gorgeous! Looking forward to reading them throughout the rest of the holidays.
Books are great.