The plan

22 Jul 2023

In the previous post I was telling you about how bad I am at managing my time. Every time I’ve tried to be more organized I’ve failed.

When you’ve tried something multiple times and failed, the smart approach would be to do something different. But I can’t really think of what else can I try.

So until I can think of a better method, the only thing I can do is keep trying.

What’s worked best for me in the past is gamifying my goals. When you have a streak, you don’t want to lose it.

I have an apple watch and I was pretty addicted to closing my rings. Exactly one year ago, I broke a 206 day streak. I exercised everyday for 206 days in a row. I was in the best shape I had been in many years, but I had to stop to have a surgery that it would require I take it easy for a few months.

A year later I’ve recovered from the surgery, but I have not found the motivation to get back on track.

Closing the rings, was very addicting to me and it worked great, but I was too dependent on it. I didn’t even take a rest day because it would mean I would not close the rings. But my body needed some rest days as well.

I think I can learn from that experience and try to apply a similar approach to my goals. As long a rest day is planned, it shouldn’t break your streak. That’s probably a healthier way to gamify it.

I’m going to make a Notion page to keep track of all the habits / goals I want to track. I will make it public and post it somewhere here in the blog to also keep me accountable.

Some of the things that will be on that Notion that I want to track are:

• Wake up time. For years I’ve tried to get up a few hours before work so I can exercise.
• Exercise: I still have to design a workout routine… I enjoy running, yoga and lifting weights. But for some time I’ve been intrigued by triathlons. I’ve love to one day complete an Ironman. So I might start biking and swimming soon.
• Diet: I don’t follow a specific strict diet, but I want to be more focused on it. I need to plan ahead. I enjoy eating healthy, but when you don’t meal prep, and you have an empty fridge is easy to fall into temptation and order some take out.
• Cold Showers and meditation: I’m not a 100% on board with these two. But I want to give them a try. I heard many people say that are life changing. I’m more scepctic, but I’m willing to give it a try.
• Reading: In the last years I’ve found it very hard to find time to read. But I want get back the habit to read a few pages.