Shortform #10

Writing that weekly review yesterday challenged me motivationally, but I pushed through the ugh and wrote it anyways, I'm very happy about that, it was quite helpful to write.

Perhaps one of the most valuable products of writing that weekly review was that of noticing.

Reviewing my past week, the shortforms from that week, and other things focused my attention on things I would have otherwise missed, and thus helped me notice what I improved, what I completed, what I failed at, what was challenging, and so on. I'm deliberately incorporating more of that noticing practice in my shortforms going forward so that I will catch more important details and things that happened / that I did / that I didn't do, especially regarding all such things congruence with my stated short and long-term goals. This will translate into more detailed shortforms, since I need more data. But, I will over time increase the quality of the data I collect as well.

What did I do / accomplish today?

1. Installed gtimelog, re-familiarized myself with how to use it (I used it previously at some point and liked it, must have forgotten to reinstall it after distro hopping at some point), and used it to help me record what I did today.
2. I spent approximately 2 hours today writing direct messages to others, this was time well spent because all that social interaction stabilized and improved my mood, preventing me from slipping into depression (have I mentioned yet how long my happiness or just mood set point is? it's pretty gorram low). Plus I genuinely enjoyed talking with everyone I talked with, and am looking forward to spending more time tomorrow on direct messages.
3. I completed 90% of "Effort required but is Fun / Rewarding" task (I mentioned this task in my weekly review), will complete the remaining 10% tomorrow.
4. I did my laundry
5. I facilitated and attended today's Houston Rationalists Virtual Meetup and had a great time doing so!!! The meetup lasted for about 4 hours.
6. I completed several <5 minute of effort tasks I'd been wanting to do.

What did I not do / fail at today?

1. I did not exercise today, the flu symptoms are still significant and impairing. I do not feel bad about failing at this today, and consider the increased rest time and lack of exercise a prudent choice, actually.
2. I did not job hunt today.
3. I did not clock any time doing the "Important but Ugh" task I mentioned in my weekly review.

What did I notice today?

1. The urges I get throughout the day to avoid working on ToDo items have decreased in strength over the past 10 days compared to their strength and intensity prior to daily shortform writing and other interventions. It feels like I'm slowly re-training my brain's reward system because I derive genuinely greater pleasure and satisfaction from doing things, especially congruent to my goals ToDo things than not doing them, so by consistently doing congruent to my goals things, I'm actually making myself want to do those things even more, more often. This is fantastic!
2. There are a high amount of small-scale bug fixes or interventions I can apply to my life / do that would net an overall high reward and improvement in my life if done. I'll start doing those and also make a list of the ones that I have trouble doing immediately / ones that might take longer time + consistently to accomplish / induce positive changes.
3. Knowing exactly what I did with my time, when, during each day is very valuable data that I want to collect more of.

What do I need to do tomorrow to compensate for stuff I didn't do today or earlier this week?

1. Limit direct messaging / social interactions to <=1 hour prior to tomorrow evening so that I can do:
   • hours of "Important but Ugh" task and
   • hours of job hunting (in the evening I can rest easy and have fun with New Year's eve, but my "active time" during the day needs to be focused on the above two things)

Notes to self:

• Several people I talked with are interested in virtual co-working and/or doing the Hammertime sequence. Reach out to them and start setting things up.
• Write out customs + norms for Houston Rationalists meetups so that everyone has an explicit guide on the way we do things, so as to facilitate more enjoyable and deeper conversations for all attendees, smooth out social interaction challenges, provide prudent ways of handling noticing confusion or heavy emotions, and so on.
• Amount of Firefox tabs are building up again, clean off the desk in the other room where my media computer is located so that when I send tabs to it I can follow my usual routine of reviewing and sorting and dealing with all the tabs sent to it.
• Spend some time jotting down longer term goals that come to mind in one place. Don't worry about structure or style yet, just write them down.
• Order groceries to be picked up on the 2nd or 3rd. Prepare for 4th wave of COVID and hunker down.
• Prioritize responding to emails tomorrow since they are the direct messages that I've least attended to recently.
• Lookup compatible ram for A's computer and send recommended product purchase to A.