5 More Optimization Tips
In my last optimization post, I detailed some little things I do to make the most of my time. I’m back with more!
I recently checked back on my records and can confirm that you, your family, your dog and everything on the planet will die one day. Your only guarantee in life is death itself. Your hour glass was turned upside down long ago and will never reset. It’s our grim reality. Reflect. How do you define your time? Is it well spent? Answering these questions is important. When answering mine, I think on how I can better them. These little tips may help a lot.
Reminders
Goldfish would crush me in a memory game. But I’d beat the shit out of them if I had my handy app “Due”. It’s around three bucks and is very helpful when I want to set a reminder to my future self. I use it for every task I need to do. “Pick up film.” “Doctor’s appointment.” “Every Time I Die tickets on sale.” For anything I know I need to do at a future date that I will not actively remember at that future time, I use Due. I set it to bug the living shit out of me until I mark the task done.
I no longer stress about remembering everything. I used to feel incompetent and stupid if a task that needed completion was stuck on repeat until I finally got around to it. Now, I just do it as soon as a task is required.
No stress.
Setting Laws
Limiting inner conflict leads to less stress, more awareness of wants, needs and discipline. That’s why minimizing things that diminish self appreciation is crucial to happiness. For instance, if I go out to a bar and have a drink, then another and then another and so on, I’ll pretty much be guaranteed to wake with a banging headache. I’ll later writhe in bed and undergo an existential crisis of what a piece of shit I am because I’m just moping around my apartment half naked with a 4-hour-old glass of untouched water. That’s why it’s important to be cognizant while drinking. I may not feel drunk, but I know there is a specific milligram dose of alcohol coursing through my bloodstream that doesn’t care about how I feel. Thus, I set a law to back off at a certain time or to intersperse drinks with big cups of water. This helps me to avoid the bleak mornings spent on my couch wishing I was being productive instead. Laws aren’t isolated to glutinous behavior, of course. They can be applied anywhere in life you feel is dipping below your standard of happiness.
Leave The Phone
Before the late 1800’s, no artificial light existed. That means that for roughly 200,000 uninterrupted years, modern humans have only experienced reality through natural light. Now, we’re sardined into offices with horrible fluorescent glows, atrophying our retinas watching television or inches from a mobile phone. It’s important to not discount the millennia of human development that was “light-organic”. Start small. Leave your phone when you do shit. When I’m hiking the Greenbelt, at dinner with friends or reading, my phone is absent. The vapid distraction it offers pales to the memories or enjoyment I can make by being tuned in to a setting. I find it important especially when I’m by myself. We’re too often not alone. We’re distracted by social callings and extraneous dealings because our minds must constantly be fed narcissistic treats. Put your phone down and be with yourself for a little bit. You might like it.
Additional suggestion: the hour before bed, don’t use your phone. It emanates blue light that hinders the mind from settling into sleep mode. Harvard says so.
Read
I will blame my education on my long-manifested apathy for reading. Most text students are forced to read are boring or irrelevant. British Literature was the worst class I took in college. However, now, I get great enjoyment from reading. Mostly, it’s because I read what I want. I am not trudging through pages of Great Expectations, desperately wishing Charles Dickens caught syphilis and died early. I see the incredible amount of information that’s packed into a tiny binding of paper and what perspectives it can offer. Sure, I pick up books that fall flat and I don’t read them. If I don’t find offering from a text after a solid try, I set it down and pick up another. There’s a weird norm that exists that mandates finishing a book is the only way to read. Says who?
Additional Suggestion: Buy online from Half Price Books. Most books are super cheap and offer you little barrier to buying them.
Waking Up Early Pt. II
Travel back to high school on a Saturday at 12pm and I’d be in my Underoath shirt burrito-ed in my bed. I used to love sleeping in. Now, if I sleep in too late, I wake up frustrated with myself. Why? Because I’m missing the day. I’m missing time for myself to experience life. Sleep is important, yes, but should not be a priority outside of refueling the brain to operate well. “But Andy, what if you shut down Barbarella and slammed a bottle of champagne?” Still wake up early. I set my alarm, put that bitch on loud and leave my phone far enough way to hear so I wake and get after the day. Refer to “Setting Laws” laws on how to avoid this situation.
Alpha-badass Jocko Willink answered my inquiry on how he manages to wake up so early and function. He wakes up around 4:30am every day and gets in a hard workout. Why? Because he’s gifting himself growth and benefit through exercise. His answer? Sleep, but be regimented and wake up at a specific time. Nap when needed.
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In summation, you can’t be everything or everywhere at once. When you stretch to the poles of your life, you create tension in the middle. Balance requires attention, understanding and humility. Honesty with the self releases stress bound up by disbelief.
