2021 Week 2 Review 10 Jan - 16 Jan: Co-Working FTW! Also...Stop Signalling, WTB Quantitative Data and Reasoning!

I recall enjoying last week, but wow did I endorse each day strongly in my shortforms. It is true that last week was substantially better than the week prior to it, and I don't recall nor have records of bad things or bad feels occurring last week, so I'll stand by my strong endorsements of the days last week.

Thus, what an excellent week!

Re, Stop signalling: "I spent most of it going through things, throwing away, organizing, sorting, and packing said things depending on what they were, and got a lot done in preparation for moving because of that. I'm looking forward to finishing up my resume tomorrow and getting feedback on it then finishing up my profile on the job sites I made an account on." (from 15 Jan shortform)

Without quantitative data backing up what was said above, I effectively signalled for that entire shortform and the truth of that day was obscured. Really I only did 2-3 hours (memory estimation, don't trust it much) of work and spent the rest of the day occupied with watching television shows or being social. It's okay to have a lazy day from time to time, but this wasn't a designated rest or "sabbath" day, plus, I obscured the truth by signalling (one could also say "employing rhetoric", potentially). I've done a bit of signalling in other posts throughout the shortforms, but this one was the worst yet.

Why I care so much about not signalling, being truthful, being quantitative: These shortforms are not just me howling into the void about my life, I'm trying to improve myself and my life! I write these shortforms so that I have data from each day to reflect on plus use in aiding memory / recall, am somewhat publicly accountable, and keep track of what my explicit goals are and how well I do at making progress to or achieving them. I need more data (and accurate data!) about my own life and actions so that I can become a more effective person! Signalling and obscuring the truth are antithetical to what I'm trying to do and who I want to be, so I'll stop that nonsense immediately. Any remaining signalling will be the kind of noise and signalling you either can't get rid of because we're tribal animals, us human beings, or will be based on truthful quantitative data and thus an endorsement of particular actions. In short, be truthful and quantitative or be square AND unhelpful to ones own self.

How I will be obtaining more (and more accurate) data about my actions and my life:

1. I don't have an internal clock that's consciously accessible to me plus I rarely experience the feeling of time passing, and am notoriously bad at noticing how much time it takes me to do something, the passage of time itself, and timeliness.
   • Using gtimelog on my desktop lets me keep an accurate time log of what I do and how long it takes me to do. Downside: everything must be manually entered. Upside: it's really simple and easy to use, plus I've gotten good at both remembering to enter things and at using the software itself. Intervention: create twice daily repeating reminders on my phone that will say: "Did you do the time log? Go do the time log" and will occur in the early afternoon and late evening.
   • Wearing a watch helps me observe the time when I'm up and moving around, so I'll commit to wearing my watch more except on rest / sabbath days. My watch has stopwatch, timer, and alarm apps so I can use those to aid in time-related things as well. I'll check its app store to see if there's a decent time-log app as well.
   • I will experiment next week with setting alarms at different time intervals (e.g. I'll try setting a "hey check the time" alarm to go off once every 2 hours initially) to see if that helps me be more cognizant of both time passing plus the actions I'm taking or not taking during that time.
   • I will take some time this next week to search for time log apps that work with the platforms I use (Linux [primary], Firefox, macOS, and iOS mostly) and see what options are out there.
2. I will use a notes app on my phone and carry around a notepad so that I can jot down whatever it is I'm working on or doing at any given moment.
3. I'll find a calorie counting app and actually use the damn thing. I've always found doing this particularly tedious and annoying, but there's no getting around calorie counting if I want to be effective at accomplishing my weight loss goals.
4. In addition to the above methods, I will be actively searching for more options that help with this endeavour and try to quantify even more parts of my life. Any suggestions?

Last week I started virtually co-working and did 3 or 4 sessions, for about 6 hours in total. I'm pushing for 10 hours of virtual co-working next week, time permitting (I am in the process of packing and getting read to move, so...things might become real chaotic real fast). I'll establish regularly scheduled sessions that repeat, should help with consistency over the long term.

My main goals for the week:

1. Look for software dev /eng jobs, preferably fully remote
2. Practise coding everyday, in particular, practise algorithms, architecture-building, and data structures.
3. Pack and get ready for moving
4. Get vaccinated
5. Continue doing the several things I've been doing either since late December or have recently identified as good for me.
   • writing shortforms, weekly reviews, etc.
   • exercising daily; focus on strength training over cardio now, but still do some cardio
   • be virtually social each day
   • virtual co-working!
   • calorie counting
   • time logging

Here's to another great week! What are you working on and trying to accomplish?

I listened to Wlad Roerich's Background Mode 0.1 while writing this. It took me 60 minutes (1 hour) to write this weekly review and then publish it.

Be well!
Cheers,
Willa