Fri 10.25  No compulsive social media use: 23 days No compulsive research: 23 days No passive screentime before bed, first thing in the morning, and during work: 26 days I'm close to a month in with these goals of mine, which is really cool to see how far I'm coming. Was checking to see my screen time and it's trending greatly downwards. Not something I forced either, naturally downwards instead. Being busy with kids, my wife, my friends, my dogs, enjoying life; real life that is. True, I do still have interactions with technology, but I am not making it a point to just find pleasure. I am sticking to screen time that also benefits me; such as my work, journaling here, or if it involves spending time with my IRL friends and family to further foster my relationships with them. Something I'm noting that has greatly shifted for me, is that I feel like I'm using technology with intention and with awareness now. October 2024 is the first month... nay, the first time ever since I've felt this. I no longer think in terms of showing off while playing a game or sharing on the internet, these are just not important at all. Things that I will do everyday to stay healthy Sleep around 8h - Ehhh~~ well, I went to bed at 11pm, a bit late but not usually terrible... however, last night was one of those nights where kids just weren't staying in bed. The baby woke up 3 times, 2 of which my wife wanted to handle, and 1 which I did myself. My oldest joined us at 12am, entered our room upset. And my middle kid also woke up at 5:30am and did not want to go back to bed. So I got about 6.5h of sleep, and I'm really feeling it today. I'll be going to bed earlier today for sure; reminder for myself to talk to my wife about that. Bad sleep means cravings, usually with procrastination. I'm glad to say that I did not sink to my bottom lines, but there were times where I thought about it. I grounded myself with meditation and deep breathing to help me here, as well as taking a break to refill my water bottle and do some quick chores around the house; these things ground me. I still was not super productive at work, to be fully honest, but I think it also could've been much worse too. Ok day overall. I'm glad it's Friday. Stretch - Big stretch when I got up to check on the baby at 4am. Then waking up at 6am (begrudgingly) and before working out today, and through my breaks; admittedly, I didn't take as many breaks as I could have. Skipped a few pomodoro breaks, specially near the end of the day feeling like I had to "crunch" my output, and it did cause some pain in my back. Go for walks / Exercise - my oldest had a PD day, my wife let me go to the gym by myself. I used the treadmill for a 30min incline walk, then I went to shower afterwards. Drink Water - Yes, I did drink a lot, mostly because I've also gotten used to drinking water whenever I find my mind is racing, as a way of grounding myself. Similar results to deep breathing and meditating. Wash face + body - yes, both after working out. Nutrition: breakfast - cereal lunch - crackers with hummus dinner - flatbread pizzas Talk to my partner - yes, I also talked to her about next week, it's going to be busy with my in-laws away from Monday to Wednesday. I actually got this idea to talk about it with my wife from my ADHD coach earlier today; this is a good reminder from her, as it's a proactive way for me to plan ahead for a week where my work will have to be made up at odd hours. Also, reminder about the sleep thing for me to bring up later. Talk with my kids + play with them - Outside time while I let the dogs out; this is a fun way for them to get outside time, while I also let my pups stretch out and supervise my kids at the park across the street. Read a book - I finished reading the 2nd Habit. There's quite a few exercises to do still, but I'll get to those over the weekend. Meditate + deep breaths - yes, see the above section on sleep. Practice French - still have to practice, will do it before my bed routine Journal (gratitude and reflection) - kids can be tough, but it's worth it! 7 Habits - Proactivity Test - day 9 My commitment yesterday was to finish up to Habit 2. I finished reading, but there are 7 exercises. Technically I already did two of them; one being that initial funeral visualization exercise, and the second one being the alternative centers which I identified closest with. I'll edit this post to link them, at some point later in the weekend. Something neat that Covey writes in the 7 Habits; "Just as breathing exercises help integrate body and mind, writing is a kind of psycho-neural muscular activity which helps bridge and integrate the conscious and subconscious minds. Writing distills, crystallizes, and clarifies thought" He says this in regards to the writing of our Mission Statement. But it hit me then that he's also describing meditation, deep breathing and journaling too. Ah, so that makes sense to me, why these two things are so helpful; indeed, I do think it's healthy to sort out our thoughts and put them down on paper. Writing, even typing, is helpful just for noting what we want to remember later. A bit of a tangent here, but I think this is why I prefer writing with a pen / stylus, or typing on a physical keyboard at least, over typing in a touchscreen. With a pen / stylus, I can feel the shapes of the letters, symbols and numbers that I'm writing out in paper; I can feel how much pressure I'm putting, and physically see how the pen leaves stronger marks. Even in my phone, while using my notes app with the stylus, that also leaves a darker shade if I press it harder against the screen (really neat detail). With a keyboard, not as satisfying as writing by hand imo, but my hands are always in a specific position, as are my fingers within reach of the keys I hit. I also get tactile feedback, I know by how my fingers are extended (through just practicing a lot and getting used to the keyboard layout) exactly which key my fingers are about to hit. I just... miss all that when I type on my phone. I'm not saying this is the only reason either, but it's probably part of why I also negatively associate hopping on social media on my phone now. I know I'm not really wanting to type anything on my phone, so I tend to default to just doomscrolling and posting low effort nonsense. I mean, even without the touch screen keyboard reason, I can think of many other reasons why it's not a good use of time, haha. But anyways, I digress. Just a cool thing I thought about after reading that part. --------- This is all I have to share for today; I'm tired. Tomorrow, I have a Halloween party at a friends place, so I will keep tomorrows post short. My commitment will be to circle back with the exercises from Habit 2, just maybe the questions. I won't answer all of them tomorrow.

26th October - Clear Day 15 I just googled 'contempt', as it has sometimes reared its head over the years. My recent wonder was centred around whether it involves switching 'on' or 'off'. Is it more common to let your enthusiasm slide away, (switch 'off') or to take hold of some anger and direct it at someone (switch 'on' even more)? Usually what happens to me is I just think perhaps a little sooner than average that more thought is called for mid-conversation, and it doesn't show on my face enough so the current talk continues, and I've wished to be someplace else. 😄 I know who would probably interrupt with full use of vocal volume, but that's not quite me. The risk of contempt. I know it's only temporary and that every little thing on the in-game screen would beg for increased attention, but wow at the moment do I want to take part in something that doesn't matter for awhile. I actually got the impression that weekends are more brutal than weekdays because a standard Mon-Fri employer/employee is usually putting courageously good effort in out there, and that's inspiring to my present cautiousness. I couldn't understand how everyone else (presumably) taking public transport at the hub was doing it this morning. By it I mean seeming to barely take in the environment and honing in on escalators, effortlessly dodging other people and such. I became convinced I was lost and eventually too purposeless to take this morning's trip - like all I was supposed to do was observe and then leave the hub. There are still alternatives and solutions I have in mind today. The problem for me is, at this stage/trajectory I'm unlikely to see truly see anyone else as a mere obstacle to be dodged, and be able to show casual lack of appreciation for new situations. My old gaming buddy once called me a timid ('soul') person, as if he positively knew that from our frequent (but careless on my part) DMs, but at least I had a fair bit of music-induced confidence back then. Alas. _____________ Not much to report from yesterday, except that I let myself get immersed in a 1 on 1 (then another mate joined for 3) at Discord's mini-golf game. I brought up feeling a little disoriented almost as soon as I noticed. That, followed by the Uno-like card game. The warning signs for me were beginning to strategise and take it seriously instead of just talking and being closer to fouling up every move/shot. I think these minor struggles were due to impulsively deciding to rush home for a 6pm agreed meeting time on Discord (though there is no pressure to do anything except talk). However, I was online with company for 90 minutes, and I did finish dinner and a by-then coldish half cup of tea at the same time. That's what made me feel the worst - multitasking and the component activities each suffering. When we closed the card activity, my enthusiastic commentary ceased and I became stuck for words again. Maybe this does put paid to the idea of doing almost any 'worthwhile' gameplay behind a screen. Hm. No urges towards my problem-RPG last night.  Matt 

Entry 25.10  Day 756: No Useless Videos Day 753: Sticking to Food schedule Day 356: Eating Only between 06:30 and 19:00 (Last bite before 19:00) Day 61: Being in bed before 23:15 3 Things I did well no matter how small -13 pomodoros -morning workout -removed walnuts and chia and tahini from today's nutrition because yesterday I ate both accidentally (Without noticing, just went on with habits and noticed only when i almost finished with walnuts) 1 thing I could do  better -First finish my main goal of 16 pomodoros then all the rest (Apart for staying in sun)

I know it's easier said than done, but try to keep any passive screentime out of your bedtime routine. I've noticed for myself that it takes me about 1h after using screens to fall asleep. In practice and from my own experience, I know it can be very tempting to reach for your device though, particularly if you've made it a consistent habit. It's hard to break bad habits. But give it a go; put your phone away from your nightstand / bed at night, if you text your partner at night you can offer to do a call instead, and generally keep tech out of the bedroom (or all screens off at least). Focus on a more calming set of activities, like reading a book, do a nightly hygiene routine (shower, brush teeth, etc), even eating a light snack like a banana or yogurt (keep it low-carbs and protein).

Yeah, Mission Statements are hard to write. I'm not familiar with that book, the one I'm reading is from Stephen R. Covey on "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." But the idea sounds similar; you want to create a base, a foundation that is built on correct principles like honesty, integrity, fairness, quality, and accountability (these are the ones I'm remembering atm). Covey also states in the book I'm reading that it isn't just a once-and-done kinda thing to write a Mission Statement, it can take several weeks or months before we feel comfortable with it, and even after that it's something we want to keep reviewing to align it as our understanding of principles evolves. As my signature says, one day at a time. I'm not rushing the process; it's certainly hard to find time some days with 3 kids, but it's been worth it for me to carve out the time to do the work. Mission Statements can be written to be personal, for a family, for a community, and for a business. I'm starting with writing my own mission statement, but at some point I would like to write one with my wife for our family. We have a whiteboard that I think would make a good drawing board for it.