Productivity
😎
Week 1 of my elastic habits went very well. I didn’t miss a day on any of my habits (sleep, housekeeping, and projects). I’ll cover the details in the next sections.
Sleep
🙂
I got an Elite win every day on sleep. That means I was in bed with my night routine done in time for 8 hours of sleep. Some days my sleep got interrupted, but the important thing is I was prepared for 8. As a result I was less tired and more focused most days and had more time in the evenings, though there were still a couple that dragged and needed a nap.
Housekeeping
🙂
I got through cleaning my whole living room and part of my kitchen. Given the amount I procrastinate on cleaning, this is a big deal for me. My goal is to get through an initial cleaning of everything and then decide on a schedule. I’m also going to purge and organize, but I’m on my guard against using those to put off cleaning.
Money
🙂
I decided on Quicken for software and defined some questions to answer. After looking closely at the free program HomeBank, I decided my financial software needs to be as automated as possible so I don’t get tired of all the recordkeeping and give up, since that’s what’s happened every time before. So it needs to get automatic updates from my accounts. It also needs to cover budgeting, investing, and invoicing. I looked at reviews of some options, and in terms of well-established apps, my requirements all seem to point to Quicken Home & Business. So I’ll set that up and see where it gets me.
Looking into HomeBank got me worrying about financial issues, so I made a worry list. Part of my procedure is to respond to each of my worries with possible rebuttals or solutions, and I organized my responses into a set of financial questions to answer. They ended up sounding like basic financial planning questions: What are my goals and their time frames? What sources of income would fit those requirements and be appealing and feasible for me? Also how can I avoid disastrous investing mistakes?
Reading
🙂
To procrastinate on the epistemology book I’m trying to get through, I’ve been catching up on a bunch of miscellaneous articles. Some highlights:
- An inside view of the Capitol insurrection.
- Some agenda-setting takes on a cognitive direction for AI research.
- The previous administration’s space policy, which I rather liked, and hopeful signs that space will continue to be a priority for the government.
- The needed solutions to the environment’s dire situation and the coming surge in climate migration.
- A struggle against racism in a community near where I grew up.
- A method of teaching critical thinking.
- A documentary about one of my favorite emotes and how it was co-opted by the alt-right.
- The interdependence between philosophy and science.
- A survey of Gen Z.
- Some background on the ambience videos I like to watch.
- Some practices for keeping your code runnable, especially if you’re a scientist.
