[Conquius]

Wednesday 9/28/22

 

Tuesday night was a Death Cab for Cutie concert! Surprisingly minimal impacts on my habits.

 

✅ Dishes After Dinner. Had no chores after work! Headed to the concert around 6.

✅ Restricted App Hours. Phone died mid-concert. After I got home, I just plugged in my phone, made sure my alarm was set, and went to sleep.

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock woke me up at 7. I tried to see if I could get around it, or snooze it, but my only option was to get up. Once I was up, I started my morning routine.

✅ Get Up, Get Out I really wanted to get back in bed, but I had just enough momentum from my morning routine to throw on clothes and get out of the bedroom. This was easier bc my clothes were laid out.

 

I'm in general running a little low on sleep from weekend travel and the concert. I'm traveling again over the weekend, but I'm setting myself up to be able to get a lot of sleep.

[MaeradCase]

Great chain of events!

[Conquius]

Thursday 9/29/22

 

So our regular grocery shopping schedule was thwarted by the DC4C concert. Thankfully, we have a "break glass" meal that is spaghetti & vegan meatballs that will feed all 3 of us and is super easy to make.

 

✅ Dishes After Dinner. I volunteered to cook hte spaheti. Started after I signed off work, which gave me the remainder of the evening to play Returnal.

✅ Restricted App Hours. Cut off Returnal around 10, headed up to bed with my partner soon after.

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Got up at 7, picture of sink, morning routine, ed chedderah.

✅ Get Up, Get Out. 

 

[Conquius]

Now I'm preparing for the wedding I'm going to this weekend, and the subsequent weeklong stay at my parents'.

 

I'm asking myself the following question: Do I bring my PS5?

 

On the one hand, I would have unfettered PS5 access for the whole week, and no accountability other than myself to turn it off at 10 and go to bed on time; on the other hand, Returnal fun as hell.

 

I think I'm going to make the responsible choice here. I have foreseen that this scenario could be an issue for me (I've had issues with this in the past), so I'm going to remove it as an option. Instead I'm going to bring Oathbringer to read, and Radiant Citadel to potentially run adventures out of when I get back, and neither of those options should keep me up until 3 AM.

 

Does this mean I'm not some Ultimate Discipline Warrior because I can't trust myself to turn off games at 10 when I'm alone? Sure, but I also think that part of discipline is recognizing bad scenarios ahead of time, and not putting yourself into them.

[Elastigirl]

 

3 hours ago, Conquius said:

ure, but I also think that part of discipline is recognizing bad scenarios ahead of time, and not putting yourself into them.

Agreeing. Wise move to leave it at home.  

[Conquius]

Friday 9/30/22

 

🔶 Dishes After Dinner. Wasn't my night to do dinner, it was an adhoc grocery night, and I was part of the grocery shopping away party. We didn't leave until much later than I preferred, but I couldn't control that. What I could control was how much packing I got done before the grocery trip. Should've gotten more done.

 

✅ Restricted App Hours. No apps after grocery shopping, just packing and then bed.

 

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Up at 7, picture of sink, morning routine.

 

❓Get Up, Get Out. Question Mark because I'm not sure how much this habit serves me. This works great when I'm house-sitting for my parents, or when my partner is traveling for work, but the majority of the time, when I'm at my apartment with my partner in the morning, I like to spend the morning with them instead of getting up & out as soon as possible.

 

Maybe I can get them to come with me, maybe we can figure something else out that doesn't run the risk of me falling back asleep.

 

I'm going to keep up this habit for the next week while I'm traveling & house-sitting, but I want to figure out something different once I get home.

[KB Girl]

On 9/30/2022 at 6:45 PM, Conquius said:

❓Get Up, Get Out. Question Mark because I'm not sure how much this habit serves me. This works great when I'm house-sitting for my parents, or when my partner is traveling for work, but the majority of the time, when I'm at my apartment with my partner in the morning, I like to spend the morning with them instead of getting up & out as soon as possible.

 

What was the original goal for this habit? The reason you wanted to get going I mean. 

 

How was the wedding? And how are you liking oathbringer? Oathbringer would definitely keep me up until 5am x) but smart choice! 

[Conquius]

On 10/4/2022 at 6:41 AM, KB Girl said:

What was the original goal for this habit? The reason you wanted to get going I mean. 

 

The original goal was that I wanted to get up at 7, but I found that if I stayed in my room for any meaningful length of time, I just went back to sleep.

 

At the time, (Week Zero), I was also housesitting for my parents, so I had a good incentive to get up and get out of the house so I could walk our dog.

[Conquius]

I'm back!

 

I dropped off for a bit. The weekend of the 1st was pretty hectic! I had a great time at the wedding, danced my feet off. I also got to see my cousin on the way back from the wedding, and we went on a short hike. I drove from there back to my parents' house, where I housesat for another week. I was pretty exhausted when I finally landed at my parents' house, so I made a goal for that week: Rest & Recuperate. Sleep 7+ hours a night, eat 3 meals a day, don't go too hard on yourself. My meal plan was:

 

Breakfast: Bagel Sandwich and cold brew coffee. Whole wheat everything bagel, veganaise, baked tofu, vegan cheese, sliced tomato, dijon mustard. Delicious.

 

Lunch: Spruced-Up Ramen. Instant Ramen with a tare made of tahini, soy sauce, and sesame oil, topped with Just Egg & green onion.

 

Dinner: Mushroom Stroganoff and Roasted Lemony Asparagus.

 

And that was my week! I walked our dog 2-3x a day, woke up generally on time (between 7 and 7:30), and went to bed before midnight. I didn't track my habits precisely, but I know I stayed up a little later than I should've watching Community, did my dishes generally on time, and woke up around when I wanted to.

[Conquius]

Tuesday 10/11/22

 

✅ Dishes After Dinner - Not my night to cook or do dishes, but I helped my partner load up the dishwasher since they were very tired.

✅ Restrict App Hours - Apps went off at 10, so did the PS5.

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock - Alarm was set and went off at 6 (my partner had to get up at 6 and I wanted to spend the morning with them).

❌ Get Up, Get Out - Not long after my partner left for work, I went back upstairs and slept for another hour.

 

Mixed Success 🔶. I'm having a lot of fun playing Returnal, btw. If you liked Control, and are generally a fan of Roguelites, you'll love Returnal.

[Conquius]

Wednesday 10/12/22

 

✅ Dishes After Dinner. Tuesday night is Grocery Night, and I was part of the Grocery Shopping Away Party. Grocery Shopping got done late through no fault of anyone.

✅ Restricted App Hours. Apps & PS5 went off at 10.

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Up at 7, took a picture of my sink.

🔶 Get Up, Get Out. Didn't go back to sleep! But I did spend the whole morning watching videos on my phone.

 

I decided that fir Get Up, Get Out, I can do whatever I want with that extra hour in the morning. Per Atomic Habits' Make It Attractive, I want an appealing reason to stay out of bed. Right now, that attractive reason is probably going to be playing PS5? Eventually I'd like to use it to read, code, do extra work, or exercise, but right now I'm just building the habit of getting out of my bedroom.

 

Unrelated, Facebook showed me this Zombie Apocalypse sheet I filled out like 12 years ago, thought y'all might get a kick out of it.

 

 

I was super into the Zombie Apocalypse in 2010. The bike in "Vehicle" is a Surly Cross Check, a bike I built 12 years ago and still own.

 

Looking back over this I'm just seeing a lot of precursors to the bike adventuring I'd end up doing 11 years later. I listened to that Cage The Elephant album a ton while riding through Oregon, and vibed to a lot of Borderlands-esque music while riding through the western half of the country.

[Conquius]

Thursday 10/13/22

🔶 Dishes After Dinner. My night to cook dinner. I was able to get off work a little early, so I picked up where I had left off on a Returnal run. Ended up being the run where I cleared the game for the first time! Very exciting. I was doing that until about 6:30, after which I started dinner, so Mixed Success.

🔶 Restrict App Hours. I was on my phone for a while after 10, but was in bed and asleep before 11:30

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Up at 6 so I could wake up with my partner

✅ Get Up, Get Out. Took a little while to get dressed but I did not go back to bed.

[Conquius]

Weekend Update!

 

My friend (Da'Vi from Conquius Rides to Glory) was wrapping up his 18-month bike tour of the US by coming down the East Coast. He stopped in, and I hosted him for a few days. That'll provide some important context for this past weekend.

 

Given that I'm reporting these half a week later, some habits are going to be missing. Oops!

 

Friday 10/14/22

✅ Dishes After Dinner. Not My Night to do either.

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Woke up at 540 to bike into work. Da'Vi was landing in the same town my office is in, so I rode my bike in, planning to ride with him back to my place.

✅ Get Up, Get Out. Done

 

Saturday 10/15/22

Not a clue how I did on Saturday. I know I slept in on purpose, and went to the Farmer's Market w Da'Vi.

That evening, we noticed my brother (also a cyclist) was planning a ride in Shenandoah Sunday morning. We decided to join him. Ride starts at 8, it's a 3-hour drive, so leaving at 5 means waking up at 4. Putting Good Sleep Habits to the test.

 

Sunday 10/16/22

✅ Dishes After Dinner. Done, I had to be in bed early.

✅ Restrict App Hours. Same Song Second Verse

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Up at 4.

✅ Get Up Get Out. Out of the house by 5.

 

The drive was fine, just long. The route, ironically enough, retraced some early days of my Transamerica Trail ride. I had a much easier time hauling up Afton without carrying all of my camping gear. Im also significantly stronger and better at taking hills than I was 18 months ago.

 

Monday 10/17/22

✅ Dishes After Dinner. Done. Little dishes Sunday night bc we went out for pizza after the ride.

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Up at 6 to ride with Da'Vi and see him out of the city.

✅ Get Up Get Out.

 

Tuesday 10/18/22

🔶 Dishes After Dinner. Resumed a good Returnal run after dinner instead of starting on dishes.

🔶 Restricted App Hours. Was up late on insta, but asleep before 11:30.

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Up at 6 to drive my partner to get picked up for a work trip.

✅ Get Up Get Out.

 

Wednesday 10/19/22

✅ Dishes After Dinner. Since it's just Del and I for a few days, we're teamworking dishes. Tuesday is a grocery night. After work, we loaded the dirty dishwasher and ran it, headed to the grocery store, came home, ate leftovers, unloaded the dishwasher, and reloaded it with the few dirty dishes we had.

🔶 Restricted App Hours. Had a frazzled evening after grocery shopping, trying to get set up for my Wednesday bike commute. Realized that the stars weren't aligned for the commute (no clean towel, underwear; cooking dinner Wednesday night). Instead of properly winding down after I decided to WFH Wednesday, I was on insta until kinda late. Still ended up with >8hrs of sleep.

✅ Smarter Alarm Clock. Set my alarm for 730 to get additional sleep.

✅ Get Up Get Out. Didn't go back to bed.

[Conquius]

Challenge Wrap Up

 

 

I found a wake up method that works for me. It's not frictionless, but I'm not fighting it nearly as much as I was my old alarm clock.

 

I'm implementing habits that have me completing my chores well ahead of when I need to go to bed, allowing me to either get in bed earlier, or have more stress-free time in the evenings before bedtime.

 

I'm currently full of mushroom stroganoff because dinner was on time because I started after I finished work. Habit Stacking, baby.

 

For next challenge, I'm still going to track my ability to wake up with my alarm because I like tracking success, and because I want to solidify this habit.

 

I thought of my next challenge in like Week 2, and I'm really excited to share it with y'all. See you in the next one.

[KB Girl]

Havent found your new challenge yet, did I miss it? 

[Conquius]

4 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

Havent found your new challenge yet, did I miss it? 

Nope! I'm still working on it. Writing it up as we speak.

[Conquius]

Here's the link to my next Challenge: Conquius Balances the Books.

 

Postnote: I decided that this challenge was worth +1 WIS.