No new goals this week. For the last few weeks I have been experimenting with using beeminder from Emacs (using this package, not the one in MELPA https://github.com/mbork/beeminder.el)
It has been working fine as a straight interface to beeminder. I’m not doing much in the way filtering right now, since I don’t have enough goals to make it necessary, but it is nice to be able to see my goals at any time by hitting SPC g, makes entering datapoints that much quicker.
My config is below, although not much exciting in there:
; requirements
(use-package request)
(use-package anaphora)
; configure
(require 'beeminder)
(setq-default beeminder-username "SECRET")
(setq-default beeminder-auth-token "SECRET")
; use this to display an 'x' if the goal has data entered today
(defun max/beeminder-display-done-marker (goal)
(if (string= "0" (beeminder-display-string-field goal 'donetoday)) " " "x"))
; set the display format of the goal, include the done marker at the beginning
(setq-default beeminder-goal-pp-format '(
(max/beeminder-display-done-marker) " "
(beeminder-display-string-field slug 20)
" " (beeminder-display-string-field limsum 16)
" " beeminder-display-losedate-human
" " beeminder-display-rate " " beeminder-display-pledge " "))
; let it breath a little
(add-hook
'beeminder-mode-hook
(lambda () (setq line-spacing 6)))
Bound to SPC g
(general-define-key
:states '(normal visual insert emacs)
:prefix "SPC"
; etc. etc
"g" 'beeminder-list-goals
; etc. etc.
)
Result is something like this:
I am considering hooking up my todo list to beeminder via this package, primarily by tracking time clocked against tasks, and pomodoros completed for work items (I use org-pomodoro for pomodoro tracking).
The only issue with this is that it would only work for tasks I complete on a computer, since I don’t run a full emacs on my phone, just orgzly for todo items, so I can’t clock tasks away from a computer.
No major changes this week. I derailed my reading goal last night. I had quite a lot of other tasks and goals to get through that evening, and ended up trying to get through 400 locations last thing before going to sleep. It seems that I fell asleep around 300 loc and woke at 4am to a notification letting me know I’d derailed!
No changes or derailments this week. The only changes I have made is to book holidays for some of my goals, since I’ll be away for a couple of weeks.
I’m feeling happy with my goals right now. I am getting things done without feeling overwhelmed, generally holding enough buffer to handle any cases where I simply can’t get things done.
I am conserned that I have weasled slightly on my ‘todo home’ goal, by rescheduling a task on the day I was meant to complete it. I rationalised it at the time, but looking back, I simply waited too late in the day before starting.
I have decided to decrease the pledge one-level, and "recommit’ mentally, in the hope that I will be able to re-sanctify the goal in that way. This is similar to my usual method (burn all my productivity systems and start afresh with something “better” – which tends to keep me on track for a few months just thanks to the novely of the new method) but less drastic. Fingers crossed.
Last day of holiday, everything starts back up tomorrow. The only change I have made is to reduce the frequency of this journal to monthly, to make sure I have enough to write about.
I derailed one goal this week (stretching) due to getting distracted half way through and forgetting to enter any data. Reminder to self: treat yellow as red!
Apart from that everything is ticking along nicely. I’m getting back into the post-holiday rhythm. I’m trying to focus more on my priorities and getting rid of some less urgent projects right now, but that is mostly around my todo list rather than my goals, which are all core habits.
I’ve added a new goal to be in bed before 10:20. I managed to fail 3 times in a row and derail immediately, so I’m not especially hopeful I won’t derail again next week. My bedtime has been slipping further and further back, and it has knock-on effect on all other aspects of my life, so I’m going to struggle to rein it back it again.
Focus
I’ve been playing around trying to improve my focus recently, some of my notes:
(I started using these rules on 2019-06-21)
I struggle to focus on a single project, and have great difficulty finishing anything. This leaves me with my open projects that are making little progress, but take up brain space.
In an attempt to actually complete things, I am trying to create focused projects, this means:
Only have 1-3 on the go at a time
They should be small enough to be completed within 2-4 weeks
There should be a clear definition of done after which the project is complete, and archived
If the project is larger than this, it is broken down into chunks
Update 2019-07-05, I am already at 4 projects, and only one of them has a really clear, short-term goal. Two of them are for events that will happen in almost 1 year! Instead of ‘Event X’, I should have made them ‘Initial Planning for Event X’, which might spawn off other projects. It seems like overhead, but I think it will really help me shift these things more quickly.
I think the experiment has been useful, but I’m still not disciplined enough about really focusing on one thing until it is done. Yesterday, I considered just stopping all my goals and just hammering a few projects to get into the habit, but I still feel my current collection of habits and goals is useful enough that this would not be worth doing.
I still have a few blocks of time that I don’t use very well, especially lunch break where I could get a lot of busywork out of the way before the evening, so I am trying to fix that before doing anything more radical.
Bedtime, habits and projects, all straining at each other!
How much of a stretch is 10:20? As a new goal, pick a target that you’ll easily meet.
If you pair it with a get-ready-for-bed-now alarm/trigger, you could ratchet both items towards the real target bedtime.
Also consider changing the deadline of any goals that you’re prone to stay up late completing. That deadline should be the same time as the alarm/trigger, not of the bedtime…
In this case, the bedtime goal presumably requires some preparation/relaxation time rather than just falling into bed. So any other goals that need to be done that day need to be finished by the relaxation-start time rather than the bedtime-time. I don’t know how well it generalises to other kinds of goal.
How much of a stretch is 10:20? As a new goal, pick a target that you’ll easily meet.
If you pair it with a get-ready-for-bed-now alarm/trigger, you could ratchet both items towards the real target bedtime.
It was originally 10:00! I moved it to 10:20 after failing so miserably. I’ve been doing well this week with the 10:20 time, much more achievable. I like the idea of an alarm when I need to begin getting ready, I have created one to test out tonight.
Also consider changing the deadline of any goals that you’re prone to stay up late completing. That deadline should be the same time as the alarm/trigger, not of the bedtime…
I have a deadline of 2am on all my goals! In the past, setting earlier deadlines for some goals hasn’t worked so well for me. Whever or not I will have time to get a bit of a head-start on a goal in the morning or at lunch changes day to day, so I need as much flexibility as possible to sacrifice my buffer on some of the goals occasionally to save the others (which might mean staying up past 10:20, sacrificing the sleep goal, in order to finish my todo list and any red goals).
This isn’t optimal and I’d love to be able to clear out many of my goals before lunch, but there often isn’t time (there really isn’t time sometimes, I’m not just saying that and then watching tv for an hour in the evenings!) I’ve probably got an hour of slack in the day right now, without reducing
