Because of exhaustion I was able to get into bed at 9pm, I slept a good 9 hours until 6am, feeling refreshed. It took me a while to get out of home. This seems to be a constant which I want to improve, from the moment I get out of bed to the time I’m leaving the door it may be two and a half ours on a good day. When I was in beast mode with the Boolean Game I’d get down to business right after making coffee, but these days I’m finding it impossible to get anything done at home.
I shall describe how I tackle habits in order to remember how to put things into practice. First and foremost there is the “habit of habits” which is remembering what you’re working on for yourself. We make many commitments which we never follow up upon, there should be a space early in the morning to reflect upon this, but even this can be challenging to remember some times.
For some time I practiced uttering a phrase first thing in the morning: “I am here”, which is a prompt to escape the automatism of life. Some days I would utter it as soon as I opened my eyes when I woke up, others it would be an hour until I remembered my commitment. This serves as an anchor for the commitments we’ve made in consciousness. The commitment in this case would be “I am here, and my present purpose is to get out of home as as quick as possible”. Doing it is quite easy, remembering it is not.
Back to the day: I biked to the office and put myself to work at around 9am. I found great concentration arising from the fact that we had to send a deliverable to the client later in the evening, and I found myself breezing through work. I had long forgone mice, but there was a mouse at the office and I found my UI dexterity greatly improved from using it.
I also programmed a prototype, and the process of bringing the design to life was delightful. This has always been the most exiting part of work, its breathing life into a lifeless form. I’m reminded of a quote of the Bible: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”.
I worked as fast as I could, in full stillness and concentration, yet I was only able to send the work a bit late in the day. After the email was sent I felt the full tiredness of my body and mind, so much that I wanted to forgo a social event later at night. But then I though: “where is it that I find most displeasure from the idea of the event?” and I noticed it was biking uphill 4 kilometers. So I cut a deal: I’d take the subway but still attend the event.
It was a MeetUp called “Meaningful Discussions”. The topic was love. I could write another full work log based on the conversation we had, but it’s time to leave home now.