Mad Hatter

Flawless logic, need to refund body.

Yesterday I was another write off day. I procrastinated everything. And then I got frustrated. And I procrastinated some more by thinking about productivity. Classic. But it gave me some ideas. A while back I was listening to a podcast with Steven Pressfield who wrote the War of Art and his solution to fighting the Resistance was to become a Professional. So I asked myself how could I possibly have been good at my job despite my chaos, what tools did I use, what enabled my productivity. It might not have been exactly conventional, but it was very flexible and worked for me. - I had a single to do list, which I constantly reprioritized. - I'd put down any random interruptions, thoughts, ideas and questions on the to do list as they came up. The list was equal part brain dump as to do. - I broke down tasks in as small steps as needed. For tasks I procrastinated a lot I kept breaking down the steps until I found a tolerable entry point. - I never planned for how long something would take, or exactly when I'd do it, it was all based on priority. (Admittedly not always popular with management) - I selected tasks based on mood, as long as it was near the top of the priority list. If I was feeling tired or procrastinatey I'd choose some low hanging fruit, or something I could do without thinking until I got into the groove. - I left breadcrumbs before leaving work for the day, both in the code and in my todos so I wouldn't forget what I was doing and so it'd make starting easier the next day. - Sometimes I'd get straight to productive work, sometimes it took me some time to get into it, and some days I'd just write off and hang out in the kitchen and bake cookies. But this was never a problem since on average I got a lot of shit done. - My slacking time was still somewhat work focused though. Like I might dick around a lot, but I'd still reply to messages and actively procrastinate work tasks. I was never able to completely do something else during work hours, so eventually I'd get bored or want to get at least something done before the day ended. - I never expected the to do list to end. - I never expected to do things "perfectly" because it's fundamentally not how you work in tech. - If my colleagues annoyed I'd change room, if I couldn't focus in my flat I'd go to a coffee shop. Things I didn't use, that incidentally have never worked in my private life: - Schedules, time blocking, complicated systems with a lot of documents/tags etc, step by step chronological plans, time trackers, todos determined in advance... Differences compared to work: - There's no clear priority on my personal life, everything I do is a side quest. At work I prioritized based on urgency, who I wanted to help most, business needs... And when I didn't know or had very conflicting prioritized I forced someone else to make the call. - There's nothing at stake. I mean there is, it's my life, but I don't feel it. Even if there's deadlines or financial incentives I don't feel it. - I don't have much personal accountability. Nobody relies on my work. Also not entirely true, but again I don't feel it. - At work the tasks are within my competence. And on the few occasions I couldn't solve something I didn't take is a personal failure, but asked one of the very smart and knowledgeable people I worked with and we'd solve it together. - There's fewer emotional tangles to deal with at work. My idea based on all this is to set aside whole days to just one thing and treat it like work. Now a big problem is that it takes me forever to get started, and if something happens while I'm trying to get started I get distracted by things or people and then I have to restart the umm getting started process. But maybe if a whole day would be an art day I could start by the equivalent of low effort reading emails, say watching an art video or render an already started painting. And just immerse myself as much as possible. Still need to do a bit of thinking about how to prioritize random projects and things like that, but I think this has potential to work?

Oh no that's awful! Luckily she's only done it twice so far, as far as I'm aware. But one time I had to go with her because it was in the middle of the night and freezing temps and that's enough to not trust her at night! Thanks! 😊 Thank you!! I was *just* thinking about that website but couldn't remember what it's called! That's really polite of your coworkers, mine would opt for spooking me instead. Or shoot me. Or my boss would sneak up behind my monitor and slooowly creep up on me. Great little game, but only worth it on sale. It's very short and has no replay value.

100% And even if they understand metabolism on a theoretical/population level it's an entirely different story to adapt it to each individual. But you're good at the experimentation part. I hope I didn't sound like I was questioning you, was just speculating!

Yesterday: Still no luck with the bike, nobody has a large enough spanner! Tomorrow I'll try the bike shop down the road. Then handstand training. My balance was absolute trash so I quickly switched to conditioning work. Not unexpected after a decent last session. But the upper back buuuurn, holy that was unexpected! The rest of the day was a bust, I don't really know what happened.

❤️ Sounds brutal! I sometimes do the same with noise cancelling headphones but if it's at night I have to keep track of her so she doesn't leave the house. And they're not the best for voices anyway. The worst for me though is that my grandma has false teeth and the sounds she makes with them make me gag, it's so gross. 🤮

Let's hope for the latter, it sounds like a draining weekend. Hope the family time will be nice even if a lot.

My thinking behind it is that when reverse dieting you don't necessarily see an increase in weight, but might first you see an increase in recovery and energy, and that it might work similarly in reverse. Of course going crazy with the deficit would also tank progress and eat in to your muscles, lead to burn out and all that. So I'm wondering if there's not a goldilocks zone for weight loss.

Can I opt out and be a house cat instead? Is this in the draining or recharging category?

Yesterday I went to my other grandma and her friend was there and OMG she can talk. I had to listen to non-stop jabbering for two hours and it wrecked me. Uggh. Afterwards I rested "with just one puzzle" and ruined the rest of the day. How many times will it take to learn this lesson? To make it worse my grandma kept talking and singing to herself aaaalll frickin' day, driving me up the wall. I don't really want to blast my headphones all day long but seems like it's the only option. It's just impossibly hard to focus and start anything otherwise. All I'm doing is waiting for her to finally go to bed, but by that point I've run out of brain juice myself. Leaving the house helps too but I don't always feel like it and there's a time limit on how long I can sit like a normal person anyway. Today's plan? - Hopefully finish my bike, if above mentioned grandma's friend has a large enough spanner. - Gym. I'm still a bit sore and don't feel like it, but getting out of the house is necessary even if it's gross and raining. - Get back on art train. I miss it. - Order pole heels

Hmm accident or marketing tactic? Entirely unbiased I'm sure 😛 😄

Enjoy! It should be the same everywhere within the EU.

Do you know if there's a risk of down regulating your metabolism/NEAT etc if you go too slow? I see no problem with this! As long as it's realistic and healthy there's nothing wrong with caring about your appearance. It's really not that much different than changing a haircut, or taking care of your skin. And the immediate, tangible reward is always going to be more motivating than the abstract uncertain reward that you can't control. In my opinion it's just smart to acknowledge the main motivator.

Turnip Boy answers to no one. Good idea, but I don't think there's enough airflow. Also I don't have a fan. The sensible thing would be to wear a mask but when I'm in cleaning mode it turns into a full-blown workout and I don't want to deal with the breathing and it getting in the way. I'll just suffer and try and keep the sessions short.

The drama! What's "reversal of desire" in the mental formae section?

I think I need to repeat this mistake a few 100 times more, then maaaaybe I'll be able to learn.

LOL also this. Brilliant! Hope it works out.

Oh I wish! Nice work on the spring cleaning, even washing the curtains! Impressive. I don't even own curtains lol. (Except for a blackout one)

Yesterday I tackled the basement to make room for my bike. And then I felt sick from breathing in all the dust and took a rest, but the "rest" ended up taking the rest of the day. Womp womp. I started a book and played "Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion". Today - Gym - More basement? - Find the electronics recycling - Website - Hopefully something else from the list

LOL sugar packets. I can use whatever excuse - she thinks I'm a terrible child who goes to discos all the time anyway. 🤣 Never mind it's 10 am on a Tuesday.

This.

I think it's pretty much mandatory in Sweden where I grew up.

Have to say I disagree, most of the time it looks like still photos with a moving lower face. Zero expression or movement in the eyes. Interesting use of VFX and AI though, kudos to him for that. Though I think the song would work just as well with his current voice throughout. It's a nice song.

Ahh so late so much to catch up on! Happy belated birthday! Look forward to trawling through the slayer clips Adding book recs to list... Gooooorgeous clay work! Hope the family emergency is nothing too serious If more people would "STFU and let me enjoy my chicken." be their life motto the world would be a happier place methinks.

Feeling much better now! I decided that the shame spirals are irrelevant and useless information whether true or not. I think weekends are a bit tough because when my grandma doesn't have any activities for three days she gets angsty and bored and takes it out on me. I have a low tolerance for rudeness and get irritated and snappy with the constant interruptions and then it all spirals and I feel like a terrible human. But on Monday I solved one of the problems at least. I cleared out some drawers for my stuff and now there's less clutter, which is helpful for both of us. Plus I got to take out my anger on throwing away my grandma's stuff. I'll admit the motivation is petty and selfish, but it also needs to be done. She doesn't need TV magazines from twenty years back. Yesterday I finally got started on the website, which felt nice and productive and really not worth the procrastination (why is it always like this?). Then I went to the gym where I did a little flow and some handstand training. Mostly conditioning because for some reason I'm enjoying it right now? Weird. 😛 Afterwards I hung out a coffee shop and read some of my handstand factory manuals which I got yonks ago and now I'm like hmmmm maybe I should lean in to handstands again since currently I seem to like it. Or would programming just ruin it? Who knows! I just looked at the challenge todo list and umm there's a lot of stuff to do in 10 days! 😬 Better get cracking!