An examined life is a life worth living

[Piotr]

Great to hear that someone is also working on their own business. Can't wait for more information on it. We're you thinking on what your product will be about? 

[Cam Adair]

The cool thing is, that this time it's not about the money, it's about being able to do it and overcome a lot of big barriers!

Big difference!

[UndRt0w]

Great to hear that someone is also working on their own business. Can't wait for more information on it. We're you thinking on what your product will be about? 

Hi man!

_It will be something in the productivity field. I'm still researching what exactly I will be offering and who I'm targeting to (probably starting entrepreneurs) . A lot of stuff about sleep popped up. So it might be about that (maybe like waking up early to do a ton of work before you leave to your job). It could also be about focus , time management, energy management, ... I'm not sure yet.

Again a plot twist

After having a talk with my business mentor I'll actually game again hahaha   I can't believe I'm saying this lol... He said my schedule is way too full the way I planned it. He's pretty sure I will get burned out. So he wanted me to have free evenings where I had free time. Since I'm planning waking up at 6 am and finishing work around 4pm, finishing guitar at 5-6pm. I think it's reasonable to use my evening for either games/tv/friends/... when I haven't got any conversations planned with other entrepreneurs or cliënts.

Gonna test it out. If I feel guilty again I'll just find a new relaxing thing to do in the evening. I've already shown myself I can be pretty realistic about the influence of gaming so I'm not really scared but I will definitely keep reflecting on this to make sure I don't relapse.

 

 

[Cam Adair]

I'd encourage you to find things to do to RELAX other than gaming. Gaming is just your go-to because it's what you know. Your need or desire to relax is good, but that doesn't mean gaming is the right solution. Not to say it isn't, but if gaming before has brought consequences to your life, it's worthwhile to consider other alternatives first. The reason I don't game isn't because I wouldn't be able to be "functional"... but I would never do anything other than my obligations. I wouldn't be in Toronto right now at Archangel Summit. I wouldn't go to Tanzania for three weeks next month. I wouldn't go to the dinner I went to with friends last night. Because I would rather use that "free time" to game. 

[UndRt0w]

I'd encourage you to find things to do to RELAX other than gaming. Gaming is just your go-to because it's what you know. Your need or desire to relax is good, but that doesn't mean gaming is the right solution. Not to say it isn't, but if gaming before has brought consequences to your life, it's worthwhile to consider other alternatives first. The reason I don't game isn't because I wouldn't be able to be "functional"... but I would never do anything other than my obligations. I wouldn't be in Toronto right now at Archangel Summit. I wouldn't go to Tanzania for three weeks next month. I wouldn't go to the dinner I went to with friends last night. Because I would rather use that "free time" to game. 

Hi Cam,

I partially agree but I will definitely need to reflect further on what you wrote here.

First thoughts without the reflections:

- Gaming consequences: For me, they were pretty mild. Twitch was very destructive, though, I'm still avoiding Twitch. Don't plan on ever going back. For me, it was general internet addiction, not gaming I think. I get bored of games pretty fast.

- Consider other alternatives first: Agree, did also do that but can't really find things for this specific situation --> After work and doing everything I'm supposed to do, I want to relax at home, do something that's low cost and low effort. The other possibilities were also really passive at home and did not have any benefits over gaming as far as I know. Once I move I may try to switch to listening to podcasts more often, though. I will also probably not get a TV.

- Not doing anything other than obligations: I think this is a good point, but it doesn't really apply for when I want to use gaming. I still think I should definitely put a lot of effort in filling my time in the weekend. This is definitely a struggle for me (this could actually be an awesome course for you, you have amazing weekends. I don't know how to start. I bet a ton of people here would want to learn this in a step by step course. Well, that's what I think at least).

 

If there are flaws in my reasoning (especially the alternatives) please let me know. I really wouldn't mind ditching gaming again if I had a good alternative.

[Cam Adair]

- Not doing anything other than obligations: I think this is a good point, but it doesn't really apply for when I want to use gaming. I still think I should definitely put a lot of effort in filling my time in the weekend. This is definitely a struggle for me (this could actually be an awesome course for you, you have amazing weekends. I don't know how to start. I bet a ton of people here would want to learn this in a step by step course. Well, that's what I think at least).

Good idea, I'll consider it - thanks! 

[Piotr]

Even when you can game safely, like in moderation, or something like that, still there are better activities to do which actually brings something! I can't find any positives in gaming, it's only good if you want to burn out some of your time. 

[UndRt0w]

Going deep

 

The past 2 weeks I've spent a lot of my time gaming again. I didn't game mindless, I've thought carefully after every session what I thought about it. I've learned a lot out of this.

 

First of all I was confused. Why was I going from not gaming and being happy, to gaming, to not gaming and gaming again? Why did I change my mind this often in a week time?

The answer is pretty obvious. I think I was just bored. I had 3 weeks off of work. After 2 weeks I grew a bit bored. This resulted in me restarting an online business (or at least building one) and me starting gaming again. Initially I started gaming but then I realised I could also restart the online business. The online business was not enough to fill the boredom.

 

Now there's also an answer that was invisible to me and I realised this by rereading a book. During my 3 weeks off of work I started filling my gaps again with internet. Whenever boredom struck I went for the easy solution, the magical world of the internet. The book 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport made me realise this was probably the biggest problem. My (our?) mind is programmed to not be bored to switch from low-stimuli to high-stimuli way to often. When waiting on a train or anything similar I grab my smartphone and read Facebook or stuff like that.

 

This is pretty harmful. The brain doesn't really get it's rest and it gets trained that whenever is gets bored or whenever it's in a low-stimuli environment, it can just switch to high-stimuli. Whenever one focusses deeply on just 1 single task, the brain gets bored and your habit is switching between tabs or tasks. The book even speaks about research that shows a permanent 'damage' in your brainfunction because of this.

 

At home I didn't really have this realisation yet. At work I do. I'm really productive at my dayjob. I get things done quickly, efficiently and with good quality. I'm in a high-stimuli environment but when I need to get focused, I can also do it easily and put myself in a low-stimuli environment and really work deep.

 

An action step I'm taking in my free time

 

So I have periods at work and at least 1 hour a day I work on my business. The rules here are clear. I need to work focussed and it's not problem for me to do this. Whenever there's no higher goal I'm not really motivated to really fill in my time or avoid internet/gaming.

 

One action step of the book (most of the action steps I already implemented during my years of interest in productivity). The book speaks about planning in your online periods. You often hear about 1 days detoxes, or also planning offline periods, but the book makes an interesting point. Your offline periods should actually be the norm, we shouldn't regard it as something special.

The rules are simple:

• You can only go online at your planned online blocks. Never at the offline blocks.

• When you really need to go online (eg. For information you need to spend your offline block) you can still NOT go online. First try to find a workaround or plan the task during your online block (switch it with another task). OR worst-case scenarion, reschedule the online block within 5 minutes. This provides a good 5 minuites of training your mind not to switch to the high-stimuli environment too easily.

• It's ok to plan a lot of online blocks when you need them (even for entertainment) as long as you keep respecting both blocks (especially the offline one).

 

I'm really motivated to do this as it will even increase my focus/deep work. Also respecting the blocks will make it more easy to workout and practice the guitar.

 

My current list of habits:

• Waking up at 6am (I forgot to update you guys on this but getting good at this)

• Working on my business every day for at least 1 hour

• Practicing guitar (Need to refocus on this)

• Working out (ups- and downs, getting there)

• Reading (ups- and downs, a lot of ups though)

• Social life: big improvement but not every week yet

• Journalling: here and to my business friends (accountability)

 

New habit: Deciding on online blocks

 

Week 1: early work

 

6 am Offline block (I usually wake up checking my smartphone), meditate east

6.30 am Online block, starting the business session

7 am Offline block, deep work business

8 am Offline block, get ready for work

9 am Online block, start working

4 pm Offline block get home, eat, workout/guitar

6 pm Online block for entertainment (gaming is allowed)

8 pm Offline block, listen to music, podcast, play guitar, read book, prepare for bed

10.30 pm Sleep

 

Week 2

 

6 am Offline block, meditate eat

6.30 am Online block, starting business session

7 am Offline block work on business

8 am Offline block guitar/workout

9 am Online block entertainment

11 am Offline block prepare for work an start working

7 pm Offline block, get home, eat, guitar

9 pm Offline block, listen to music, podcast, read book, prepare for bed

10.30 pm Sleep

 

Weekend

 

7 am Offline block meditate, eat

7.30 am Online block business

8 am Offline block business

9 am Offline block guitar/workout

11 am Online block entertainment

1 pm Offline block social, guitar, short workout, writing, journaling,...

5 pm Online block

8 pm Offline block and sleep

[Cam Adair]

Great post.

[UndRt0w]

Thanks Cam!

So I've been really inactive lately. The last few weeks I've been waking up at 6am to work on my business. Didn't skip a day yet! It's going fairly easy even though the results are pretty bad.

After coming home from my fulltime job I was actually gaming a lot the last few weeks. Like 1-2 hours most days (not every day). I've let myself completely free and to be honest it's ok. My real problem is definitely my internet addiction. But even that is being a lot better! I don't really know what happened.

Last week I was feeling like shit. I didn't even enjoy gaming that much. I was on the internet, I had a lot of fun watching silly videos. But I still felt pretty bad, it didn't fix anything. I became annoyed by my lack of willpower and discipline lately (skipped training again today...). 1 sentence of the book Deep Work kept spinning around in my head ... 'you don't need freedom in your day schedule, your brain just needs enough switching between activities'... I'm not overworked,there's actually no excuse for me to not be productive. So I started being less and less on the internet. I just didn't feel like it.

Yesterday I took a drastic decision. I want to try the following. I'm going to try to skip entertainment. It sounds crazy, not sure if it's doable but I'm gonna try to have fun by just doing productive things. I'm still filling in my schedule especially in the weekends but it's looking something like this

Wake up & eat (6am)

Business 

Guitar technique

Job

Home = eat

fitness/guitar

Study/Draw/Brain exercises (study anything I want to study, could be useful for work, busines, guitar, social life, hacks,...)

Guitar

Eat

Meditate

Journal (bought myself a journal today)

Ready for bed

Sleep (10pm)

I think it's definitely possible. Seeing this schedule is actually really exciting! I feel really good seeing it. 

I'll use this journal as a weekly journal. To keep progress on the big lines. Hope to be able to take this big step and inspire some off you. This is the most happy I felt in weeks ... 

Let me leave you with this:

Having fun doesn't mean you're happy, but being happy is definitely fun

[Reno F]

I spent one month without solely entertaintaining activities! It is doable!

[UndRt0w]

I spent one month without solely entertaintaining activities! It is doable!

Definitely! 

I'm really struggling, though. Today I woke up and just snoozed for an hour because there was no pressure. It felt really nice. Because there was no entertainment in the near future there was no pressure to quickly do my tasks. The downside is that sometimes I sit in the couch and before I know I'm watching television. Watching television is definitely less addicting to me, but it's not what I want to do. 

Reading a book on willpower now. Hope it will help me .. I used to be a real willpower machine and now I'm the opposite. I will get my willpower back though. The goal is being able to do the ideal day. So I'm working towards that.

[Cam Adair]

Keep going!