I work on a TR-1200 DT5 Lifespan treadmill now. This greatly improved my productivity, but I still had some issues.
I have a dual monitor setup and use Cyborganize. However, I was still experiencing mental friction. It turns out that there is a friction inherent in screens. When I added a large paper notebook to my productivity setup, this friction went away. It seems that not only do the feet need to move forward, the hands do as well.
I use my notebook in a simple fashion. The left page is a scratch area. The right page is where I capture tasks and notes at will. It serves as a rudimentary timelog, since I can record start and end times for tasks. Notation is like this:
*T shower
*T cook
*T eat
*T pack backpack
*T process email
When I begin a task, I circle the *T and record a begin time. Then I cross it out and record an end time when it’s completed. This creates a sense of tactile progress and prevents the mind from sticking or getting overwhelmed and discouraged. It allows me to spend all day working alone without expending my emotional reserves.
I keep the notebook under my keyboard. I put my keyboard up on my laptop when I’m using the notebook. The TR1200 desk is spacious; everything fits.
Some of the entries from the notepad get transferred into Cyborganize when I close out a page. But most things, like time entries, I simply forget and move forward. There is adherence value in recording time entries, even if they are never processed for easy analysis.
Another new tool permits me to discard my notebook time entries. I purchased the Taplog app for my Android phone. This is a super fast, customizable Quantified Self recording tool. I use it to record biological inputs and events, track spending, record short journal entries, etc. It is the most effective QS/GTD capture tool available, with one exception. Extraction of data is not automatic, so time-sensitive data such as tasks should be routed through emails to self instead.
Taplog is fast and easy enough that capture alone adds sufficient value to justify its use. I have not needed to analyze my data in almost a month of use, because capture keeps my self-evaluation and holistic awareness objective. When enough data builds, I can use statistical analysis to mine for actionable insights for experimental design. Capturing biological inputs also enhances self-control.
The two greatest challenges to my self control are procrastination in the form of viewing, gaming and reading, and overeating. I’ll discuss the procrastination solution first, then overeating.
I noticed that major procrastination cascades tend to occur in the morning at first wakeup, and after coming home from work. The critical trigger is thus walking through the door into my livingroom. At that point, if I start working, I will continue; if I start procrastinating, I will fail. So my challenge was to design the lowest-friction trigger to begin work at that point.
The koan I built is “Cyborganize Walk Write”, which reminds me that execution is defined as three things: Using Cyborganize by writing in the notebook while walking on the treadmill.
In practice, it is a very easy habit to walk up to the turned off treadmill, pick up a pen, and start dumping tasks immediately into the notebook. This eliminates the friction created by screens and goes immediately begins reducing stressful mental open loops via capture.
It turns out that these “beginning of work” moments are the time when I have the most mental open loops, which makes it very easy to become discouraged and fall into procrastination. Far from being a duty, the journal is actually helpful, because it lets me think about less. From there it’s natural to turn on the treadmill and become addicted to the sense of progress.
If I’m wracked with pain and exhausted, I will still waste a day. But at least I will have to stand to do it, which will guarantee better sleep. If I can’t muster the strength to work with these advantages, I also can’t muster the procrastinatory organization to move the laptop off the treadmill. So I wind up either sitting and reading whatever books I’ve preselected on my phone, which is at least pseudo-productive, or standing and gaming/viewing, which exhausts the body, avoids sedentary syndrome, and encourages bedtime adherence, preventing a Circadian failure cascade.
All this leaves morale failure due to monkey judgment overstimulation as my remaining failure point. I described how to avoid that in previous posts.
Ah, I forgot overeating. I think this is mostly a consequence of my limited three ingredient diet, but it may also be partly universal to the human condition. Anyhow, my solution is the koan “Eat Smoke Write.” A cigarette after the first bowl interrupts the eating trance, and tobacco is an appetite suppressant. Immediately after that, I write in the journal, record the biological inputs, etc, starting the work habit chain. At that point, inertia favors continue work instead of continued eating.
As for general health, testing in jurisdictions where it is legal revealed that a combination of smoked and topical marijuana paste improved digestive tolerance, and shotgun vitamin supplementation corrected deficiencies. The aggressive combination of multiple simultaneous changes reflects a shift in experimental style from 2nd generation to 3rd generation warfare strategy. Also, THC reduces percentage of REM sleep; GABA corrects this for me, and also makes sleep onset much easier.
Lastly, I plan to test aggressive electrosleep. In the absence of heavy exercise, maximizing REM sleep seems biologically optimal.