I was thinking recently about how @bee and I have TagTime data on ourselves going back 12 years, when @faire was born, and that is a very strong psychological pull to not ever let that data get interrupted.
If we start something like that Right Now (or in the next 7 hours for us) and can get past The Dip, then we can create more things with that kind of psychological pull.
Brainstorming:
A colored chart like we’ve done for maniac weeks in the past (or maybe just the last quasi-maniac week, earlier this year, that we failed to tell people about) that shows how we spend every hour of every day for the rest of our lives? Maybe it’s no harder than TagTime is. Or maybe we just want to be making cool visualizations from TagTime data.
Maybe at least just a daily journal? Ooh, what about the equivalent of changelog.beeminder.com for oneself? Like every day you have to record a new thing you learned or accomplished or some improvement you made that’s visible to friends and family? (Loved-one-visible improvement = LOVIe?)
Neglect-minding a Trello board of people I want to keep in contact with. Very gradually breaking up with amazing friends by failing to ever talk to them sucks.
A photo-collage of everything you put in your body in 2020 would be pretty cool, and motivating. I’m not too inclined to do this myself but it’s a cool idea some of you may like…
neglect minding relationships sounds like a super useful idea.
idea 1. sounds like “plan every minute” which is a thing that some people beemind, (i asked one person and they were doing it at maybe 15 minute granularity?), and is part of more than one productivity schema.
the 100days thing i did last year was a thing… it was great and motivating, but 100 days turns out to be a reeeeall long time. I can’t imagine committing to take pictures of all the food i eat for a whole year. i couldn’t last even 4 days on that.
Here are the 100 days things I did last year, though, for reference:
run 1 mile every day (didn’t quite complete this one because of injury at the end. i think i got within 10 miles/days)
2 handfuls of veggies every day
mini-meditation habit (minimum of just 1 minute)
daily gratitude journal
no sugar
The only one that continued after the end of the 100 days was the mini meditation habit.
I’ve kind of off and on (ok, really mostly off) used tagtime but building some really neat visualizations might motivate me to start using it regularly since I’d be super jealous of all of the nice data you’d have Nothing really concrete here yet, but I’m thinking some 3D plots that would allow you to explore how your time is used/divided in different ways on different axes, maybe just as simple as comparing types of tags for an average day, but I suppose the tag ontology would matter a lot here.
I really like the name LOVIe. I’ve been considering a captain’s log style daily journal, but maybe this would be more interesting and might have a lower entry cost. I’m thinking of framing this as the answer to the question “what did you learn today?” that might get asked around the dinner table. An interesting extension to this might be to combine these daily items into a shared Anki deck so that not only do you not forget your own lessons, but you can learn from your friends/family doing it with you!
I have been planning to quit sugar for so long. But first thing I do when I wake up is make a chai for myself & then tell myself from tomorrow, I won’t do sugar. Happens every single day.
My resolutions for 2020 are just the 10 things I’ve beeminded. Most of them are related to my studies, 2 of them are health related. Running 4 Kilometers everyday & Intermittent fast for 5 days a week. Although all study related goals are top priority & absolute essential.
I thought I was being ridiculous but you loving it is kinda making me love it.
Maybe just learning some new thing is too easy but if you learn it and add it to Anki then you’ve ensured you’ve permanently learned it and that’s a legit lovie?
I also really like the terms “todone log” and “captain’s log” (HT @malcolm on that). And any enduring thing you accomplish seems like it would count as a lovie.
I feel like I’ve been doing something similar for pretty much all of 2019, tracking real-life UVI’s or upgrades. I’ve played with tracking productivity upgrades, community upgrades, career upgrades, health upgrades, both separately and all in one goal. I think I can say it’s been one of the most impactful things I’ve done this year.
I guess it still wouldn’t quite qualify, though, since you included the stipulation that they be “loved-one visible.” Many of my upgrades weren’t immediately visible to those around me, though the results often were.
How would you decide when that requirement had been met? Say I install an app on my phone to ensure I keep in touch with distant friends. The fact that I installed an app isn’t visible to my friends, but my new level of communication is. Would that count or not?
Good question! What’s worked great for Beeminder’s UVI goal is to have a sense of what the spirit of the commitment is and then make the hard criterion be “anything we’re willing to publicly announce as the UVI counts as the UVI”. Ie, just leverage shame/pride to keep it from getting weaselly.
Hmm, I like it. Maybe silly, but… In order to leverage the shame/pride bright line, would you literally publish your LOVIe’s in a monthly newsletter to your loved ones?
I’m leaning more towards the “yearly themes” as popularized by the Cortex podcast.
Last year was the year of raw output, considering I had to finish a PhD and still ran my Blog on the side and was starting a Youtube channel. Next year is the year of Settling and Whittling down. I’ve spent a long long time in Academia now and I’m kind of over it. Next year I want to find a more steady job in a place I enjoy living. I’ve felt very uprooted where I live currently and that’s not good for anyone including me.
So settling down in a career sense and in a physical place. But also give my overactive ambition a small break. The last year was impressive, but I also suffered from burnout during the last 1.5 months and I need to breathe again. And also let the friendships I forged settle a bit. I have made some wonderful friends and I want to nourish these friendships. Obviously I don’t have a relationship at the time, otherwise I’d better find a better wording than “settling down” nor have the time to do half the things I do.
Whittling down in a sense that I’ve started and tried a ton of things. Created great opportunities, however, I think I’m starting to get a feel for the things I’d enjoy to pursue further and the things I need to let die for something better to grow from the compost. I’ve done a lot of volunteer work for my professional society and they aren’t particularly thankful about it. It’s something I’m very happy to let go, as I’m neither having an impact nor a positive ROI, while they’re trying to leverage my network and expertise. Thanks but no thanks. There are greater things to build. Making visually appealing explainer videos about things I enjoy doing and have expertise in on the other hand is amazing and this huge learning opportunity and creative outlet. So yeah, it’s basically a dumb way of saying “prioritize” but I want it to sound good together.
So yeah, essentially I need to build some structure in my life and prioritize projects so I can focus on what matters and regain some headspace.
In the meantime of figuring these things out, I plan to build systems that accommodate a more healthy lifestyle and do some leisure travel and not just convenient weekends after business trips.
The habits I want to keep doing is regular exercise and meditation. Writing and creative work. Play casual Pokemon. However, I do need to eat better and get back into the habit of keeping my surrounding a little less… Uhm… bachelorish? But those are well on their way already. I’m down 5kg since handing in my thesis and my place has only recently turned to a dumpster over Christmas and will be fine within the next few days again. I’ve recently fallen out of the habit of journaling too and I am in the process of changing it again.
I’m really looking forward to the new decade. (Don’t at me.)
I plan on prioritizing health with a rabid zeal. I don’t mean doing any particular health thing to extreme, but to be unflinching in making health the top priority this year. My body did me a solid in 2019; it’s time to reciprocate.
Would a resolution like “I won’t do sugar except in my morning chai” work for you? Or “I won’t do sugar after [midday | 2pm | 5pm]”? Anything that limits your sugar a little is an improvement!
If you find that successful, you could slowly make it more restrictive. For example, change the time limit from “after midday” to “after 11am” or change the chai sugar from 2 teaspoons to 1.7 teaspoons. I’ve found that as I remove sweet things from my diet, my tolerance for sweetness decreases, so after a while it gets a bit easier to reduce more.
That’s a question for @mary but I think even knowing what an insane amount of work running a contest is, this one still surprised us and so we’re sadly not ready to repeat it for 2020!
Btw, these responses are wonderful, everyone. Thank you! Keep them coming!
Nothing really concrete here yet, but I’m thinking some 3D plots that would allow you to explore how your time is used/divided in different ways on different axes, maybe just as simple as comparing types of tags for an average day, but I suppose the tag ontology would matter a lot here.
